A monumental, impenetrable hedge traversed the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century, posing as a customs barrier to prevent the smuggling of salt, a valued British monopoly. This ‘preventive customs line’, equivalent in length to the distance ‘from London to Constantinople’ consisted of a living hedge. It enforced a salt tax so high that daily wage labourers had to spend up to two months of their yearly income to buy salt for their families, causing widespread salt-deficiency. Now mostly disappeared from the physical landscape as well as collective memory, the hedge constitutes a powerful anti-monument to the slow violence of colonial extraction as well as the resilience and resistance of the natural world.  

In this on-going series, Hylozoic/Desires explore, resurrect and reimagine the almost forgotten history of this “Great Indian Hedge”. It comprises a video installation, six salt prints, a performance piece  and a large, outdoor  textile installation.

The hedge of Halomancy

a moving archive unearthing the forgotten story of the old customs hedge, 2025

salt march

a procession/a processing, 2025

namak nazar

prayer for salt, 2023