Waterbook
2021
gouache and water-soluble pencil on arches paper
accordion : 8 x 56 in. I 21 x 142 cm.
vitrine : 8 x 45 x 10 in. I 20 x 114 x 25 cm.
The fold-out pages of the Water Book show traced lines that map political boundaries between countries in conflict over shared bodies of water. Naturally flowing rivers transcend national borders whether it’s the Rhine, the Tagus, Shatt-Al-Arab, the Nile, the Indus or Imjin, feeding both states. Kallat has intuitively extended the lines to form a pattern that is both organic and artificial; as if reclaimed by nature to form a rippled portrait of a river. The delicately wavering horizontal lines suggest the pulse and fragility of human life as measured in medical monitoring equipment.
