Deep Rivers Run Quiet
2020
gouache, charcoal, and water soluble pencil on deckled edge paper and Arches paper
43 x 30 in. l 109 x 76 cm. each (pentaptych)
The meditative waterscapes and drawings that compose Deep Rivers Run Quiet had their genesis in contemplative acts of drawing centred on the idea of political borders. In a process which can be described as a form of (digital) drawing-as-thinking around the absurdity of imposing manmade territorial demarcations on living, connected landscapes, Kallat repeatedly reproduced the traced outlines of conflict-ridden international borders, creating stacks of such lines that resembled ripples in a waterbody. These stacked lines when projected on panels formed the basis for drawings of rippled water surfaces that were eventually subsumed by paint. In the process, rigid territorial borders and the conflicts they embody were symbolically returned to nature; dissolved into placid yet pregnant portraits of water surfaces rocked by deep currents. The waterscapes and line drawings appear side-by-side in the work, interrupting and illuminating each other.
