Saline Notations (Echoes)
2015
digital print on Hahnemuhle photorag archival paper + DIBOND
42 x 29 in. l 107 x 74 cm. each (set of 6)
Saline Notations (Echoes) are a series of looped texts inscribed in salt that reflect on memory and all that is lost in the gulf between two minds—between what is said and heard what is meant and remembered. Spelt out by hand on a beach front, the texts are dispersed slowly by the wind, the rising tide and the feet of those passing by.
Salt is a substance essential to life and sustenance. As it dissolves and returns to the sea, it evokes the frailty of human life and the shifting nature of our memories. The horizon line, an imaginary, ever-changing crossing between the earth and the sky, forms a backdrop to the work.
In Saline Notations and other works, Reena Kallat turns often to the expansive time of nature; marked by the sun, the moon, and the rising and receding of tides. She surrenders the process of creation to natural elements, in a way incorporating them into her works as invisible, unpredictable partners.