The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum is currently showing to present Cartographies of the Unseen, a solo survey exhibition of Reena Saini Kallat, at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museumone of India’s most eminent artists, who is also an alumnus of the Sir J.J. School of Art, which shared an umbilical and historic link with the Museum.
Saini Kallat's practice reflects a deep engagement with themes of injustice and man’s hubris which is evident in the ways we interact and care for each other and the earth. She excavates troubled histories represented by barbed wires and alienated communities. Historic injustices manifest in arbitrary borders drawn by the colonial powers in former colonies, have produced much of the conflict that besets the world today. Saini Kallat deploys this as a powerful artistic trope to underscore her concerns and render prominent what becomes obscured by time and mediatic manipulation. The works have a particular resonance in the context of the Museum, which was an archetypal colonial institution engaged in controlling cultural narratives.
Nature on the other hand knows no boundaries and Saini Kallat imagines a world where conflicts are resolved and humanity lives in harmony through sharing and merging, subsuming vanities for the larger benefit of the species. Man’s hubris has produced various forms of climate catastrophes and accelerated the extinction of species, which the artist suggests can only be checked through the recognition of the profound values that bind us together. Advocating for a renewed awareness of the interconnections that sustain life on earth, Kallat’s work is a poetic plea for a kinder, gentler, more equitable world.
Supported by Chemould Prescott Road, Nature Morte and MasterArt Logistics
