Reena Saini Kallat
Untitled. 2011. Electric wires and fittings, 10 min audio loop
11 ft x 38 ft I 132 in x 456 in
– Artist’s Website –
“The flows and movements of labour migrants across the world have resulted in cultural exchanges not to mention the social and economic implications. It has not only allowed us to free cultural identities from a physical place but see us all as entwined in a symbolic web as it were. For the Konsthall Goteborg, as part of the Goteborg International Biennale of Contemporary Art 2011, I decided to work with electric wires to form a drawing that will trace migration patterns globally, where multitude of actors interact without knowledge of the overall situation.
This work was made with wires that essentially transmit energy and information from one place to another; their linear formations often evoking barbed wires, barriers or different kinds of fencing. It is said that the electricity is the same in electrical equipment but the expression of electricity differs from one appliance to the next. By changing the instrument of this quasi-cartographic drawing from a pencil line to a wire, I’m interested in the notion of the map as dynamic, ever changing, streaming and transferring data with the global flows of energies and people, as the courses of these travelers intersect
The work also carried several sound elements such as high-voltage electric current, drowned within which were sounds of factory sirens, ship horns or communication tones such as dialing or engaged tones in a telephone.”
More here.