Annexation

2009
Painted black lead and steel
72 x 59 x 51 in./ 183 x 150 x 130 cm.

Annexation is modeled on seemingly outmoded kerosene stoves still widely used in Indian homes. Kallat’s over-sized stove is the site of an ‘annexation’, having been invaded by hundreds of marauding beasts who are depicted devouring food or preying on each other. These images that echo the daily grind for survival in India’s teeming metropolises were derived from the Gothic revival friezes that adorn the entrance of the Victoria Terminus (now the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) railway station in Mumbai that nearly three million people pass through every day.