Salt Lines: Hylozoic/Desires

Salt Lines is an exhibition by artist duo Hylozoic/Desire that excavates the forgotten history of the Inland Customs Line, a 4,000-kilometre colonial barrier imposed by the British in the nineteenth century to enforce their monopoly on salt. Part living hedge and part guarded frontier—often referred to as The Great Hedge of India—the line traversed the subcontinent, separating British-controlled territories from princely states and restricting the movement of this vital commodity.

Working at the threshold of historical record and speculative imagination, Hylozoic/Desire (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser) probe this porous and unstable border through research-driven, multidisciplinary practice. Their work reanimates the social, ecological, and political dimensions of the salt tax, foregrounding labour, surveillance, and environmental transformation embedded within colonial infrastructure. Through archival fragments and reimagined narratives, the artists offer a meditation on extraction, control, and resistance—histories that culminated in acts such as Gandhi’s Dandi March in 1930.

The exhibition is presented at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, formerly the Victoria and Albert Museum, established in 1857 to promote trade and industry within the British Empire. This historically charged setting lends added resonance to the exhibition’s themes, situating Salt Lines within a space deeply entangled with colonial commerce and knowledge production. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with RMZ Foundation and India Art Fair, and supported by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.

The exhibition is guided by Curatorial Advisor Tasneem Mehta, whose longstanding engagement with critical museology, cultural history, and public institutions informs the conceptual framework of Salt Lines. Her curatorial approach brings historical rigour and contemporary relevance into dialogue, situating the Inland Customs Line within broader narratives of colonial power, trade, and resistance, while inviting reflection on how histories of extraction and control continue to shape present-day cultural and ecological realities.