Reena Saini Kallat Indian, b. 1973
Blind Spots, 2017-19
Twelve-channel video installation with monitors, sculptural sound devices with audio
Installation view, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
Edition of 5 + AP
Copyright The Artist
Further images
In Blind Spots, Reena Kallat deploys the preambles of the constitutions of twelve pairs of warring nations from around the world as Snellen eye charts used by optometrists to measure...
In Blind Spots, Reena Kallat deploys the preambles of the constitutions of twelve pairs of warring nations from around the world as Snellen eye charts used by optometrists to measure vision. As the founding promises of hostile nation-states are revealed as pyramids of disjointed letters, words common to the constitutions of each pair morph into Braille-like dots. The dots lack the haptic element that makes Braille legible, thus rendering the words inaccessible both to the sighted and the blind. The parts thus obscured express universal values such as freedom, democracy, justice, and equality, shared by the constitutions of most modern nation states. The artist poses a ‘test of vision’ that invites audiences to reflect back on promises that have slipped from collective memory amidst years of political rhetoric and myopic competition between states. The inscrutability of the words evokes the blurred vision that makes citizens and governments across the world see only difference and conflict where there exist the common aspirations of people everywhere.
Exhibitions
2019 Blind Spots, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
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