“Bangladesh is a great delta formed by the alluvial deposits of three mighty Himalayan rivers: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. Out of the 57 transboundary rivers in Bangladesh, 54 are shared with India. An agreement has been reached only on the sharing of the waters of the Ganges and the Kushiyara River. The India-Bangladesh treaty on the sharing of the Ganges waters was signed on December 12, 1996, and is based on a formula for sharing the flows measured at Farakka during the lean season each year, from May 1 to May 31. The 30-year treaty is renewable by mutual consent.”
This complex interplay of borders and shared natural resources aligns closely with the themes of the work of Reena Saini Kallat (b. 1973, Delhi, India), an artist who works across drawing, photography, sculpture, and video. Kallat’s body of work critically examines political and social borders and the disruptions they create across land, people, and nature. These concerns stem from her personal connection to the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, an event that deeply affected her paternal family. Her work sheds light on the arbitrary creation of borders by colonial powers that affected not only South Asia but also Africa and the Middle East, resulting in ongoing conflicts, mass displacements, and ecological crises.
Even with the rise of global interconnectedness, Kallat notes that nationalist and protectionist ideologies remain the core reason why these borders are reinforced. In her series ‘Hyphenated Lives’, she explores the tensions between divided nations by merging symbols from historically antagonistic countries into hybridized forms. Built over the years and shown in several exhibitions including her solo at the Manchester Museum in 2017 and Kunstmuseum Thun in 2023, these re-imagined species of flora and fauna represent national symbols that have been symbolically fused.
The “hyphen” in ‘Hyphenated Lives’ becomes a symbol of unification, a way to bring together conflicted nations through the natural world, reflecting the interconnectedness of species and ecosystems, where the survival or disappearance of one species impacts the others. A recurring motif in these works is the electrical cable, a symbol of connection and communication. Kallat transforms these cables into barbed wire-like barriers, underscoring the dual nature of connections and the obstacles that arise between nations and people.
Transboundary water management and its underlying issues, such as the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin between Bangladesh and India or the Indus River between India and Pakistan, is further explored within Kallat’s themes in the series. It is often noticed that natural resources, such as shared rivers, can become sources of conflict between neighboring countries be it the Rio Grande between the U.S. and Mexico, or the Jordan River between Israel and Palestine. Kallat’s work reflects on these geopolitical tensions and the environmental and agricultural consequences of hydro-hegemony, underlining the crucial role rivers play in both uniting and dividing nations.
Kallat’s recent series, ‘Deep Rivers Run Quiet’, continues to abstractly explore rivers and their significance in shaping identities and ideologies. This series deepens her investigation into the geopolitical implications of rivers as shared resources, with particular attention to international conflicts over water. Through these works, Kallat calls attention to the need for collective stewardship of natural resources, with an urge to rethink borders and reflect on the shared, yet fragile, ecosystems that transcend them.
