Somerset House
The Process: Why did the British build a hedge across India?
Published: 7 March 2025 at 08:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
And how did it manage to disappear with barely a trace?
Artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser (Hylozoic/Desires) go on a journey through the archives to unearth the story of the Great Hedge of India, a 4,000km long hedge grown by the British East India Company in the 1840s, to control the flow of salt across the continent. But despite being one of the longest of its kind in history, no visual trace of the hedge can be found in the archives
Ahead of their installation in the courtyard of Somerset House, Himali and David tell the story of the hedge and reflect on the complex weave of fiction, truth and silence that surrounds it. In this podcast they ask, what can nature teach us about archives? And how can art create truth retrospectively?
They are joined by Dr Alexis Rider, a historian of science at Cambridge, who worked alongside the artists as a researcher on the project and Professor Rohan Deb Roy, a lecturer in South Asian History at Reading, who looks at the ways the termite undermined the authority of empire by eating into both the hedge and the official papers of the state.
Produced by: Alannah Chance
Presented by: Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser
Series presenter: Laurent John
Mixed by: Mike Woolley
Theme Music:Ka Baird
Additional Music:Suraj Nepal, Rahul Popawala, Ish S and Surabhi Saraf
Podcast produced in response to 'Salt Cosmologies', an exhibition at Somerset House
20 Feb – 27 Apr 2025.
You can also watch a film produced about the artwork on our online platform Channel.
Artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser (Hylozoic/Desires) go on a journey through the archives to unearth the story of the Great Hedge of India, a 4,000km long hedge grown by the British East India Company in the 1840s, to control the flow of salt across the continent. But despite being one of the longest of its kind in history, no visual trace of the hedge can be found in the archives
Ahead of their installation in the courtyard of Somerset House, Himali and David tell the story of the hedge and reflect on the complex weave of fiction, truth and silence that surrounds it. In this podcast they ask, what can nature teach us about archives? And how can art create truth retrospectively?
They are joined by Dr Alexis Rider, a historian of science at Cambridge, who worked alongside the artists as a researcher on the project and Professor Rohan Deb Roy, a lecturer in South Asian History at Reading, who looks at the ways the termite undermined the authority of empire by eating into both the hedge and the official papers of the state.
Produced by: Alannah Chance
Presented by: Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser
Series presenter: Laurent John
Mixed by: Mike Woolley
Theme Music:Ka Baird
Additional Music:Suraj Nepal, Rahul Popawala, Ish S and Surabhi Saraf
Podcast produced in response to 'Salt Cosmologies', an exhibition at Somerset House
20 Feb – 27 Apr 2025.
You can also watch a film produced about the artwork on our online platform Channel.
