Colour Curtain (between shores and the seas)
2009
acrylic paint, rubberstamps, metal
size variable
Rubber stamps appear as ambiguous stamps of authority and symbols of officialdom in several of Reena Kallat’s works. In Colour Curtain, rubberstamps carrying the names of people whose visa applications were rejected by various states are strung together to form a sculptural barricade resembling barriers commonly found at airports. The sculpture thus becomes a monument to the present, a period when mass migrations of people set afloat by economic, political and environmental crises are unfolding across the world even as border controls are being tightened by reactionary governments, leaving migrants at the mercy of stringent visa regimes.
