Somerset House’s annual Spring commission is back with a powerful project by Hylozoic/Desires, the cross-disciplinary collective of Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser.
Titled Salt Cosmologies, the multi-dimensional installation digs deep into the mineral-rich history of salt, tracing the enduring legacies of Britain’s imperial salt monopoly in India. Unfolding across three evocative chapters—Salt Line, Salt Office, and Salt Stair—the project reimagines Somerset House’s architecture and colonial past through a blend of large-scale textile installation, archival materials, photography, and film.
Through their commission, Soin and Tappeser revisit this forgotten chapter of imperial control while also drawing attention to Somerset House’s lesser-known role in the same system as the historic headquarters of the British Salt Office. The project is on view until 27 April.
In an interview with Asian Voice, curators Cliff Lauson and Kinnari Saraiya share more about the stories, symbolism, and site-specific interventions behind this timely and resonant exhibition.
What role does Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March play in the exhibition’s narrative and what are some of the lesser-known consequences of Britain’s salt taxation that this exhibition sheds light on?
The second section of the exhibition, called The Salt Office, is a gallery that brings together historical documentation, botanical samples, and salt-related artefacts, as well as process-related items from the production of namak halal/namak haram (2025), the 80m long Courtyard installation. As such, this room serves as the place where several narratives related to salt, both past and present, come together to show how this mineral played such a major part in the lives of everyday people, and in British colonial operations.
Gandhi’s Salt March is represented by a reproduction of the iconic photograph taken in April 1930 in which he held up a handful of salt to protest British occupation. Being a press photograph, this image has been widely circulated over the decades. However, the artists were also interested in the untold stories of the customs line, for example, in the permeability of this barrier to local people who the British branded as smugglers. An equally untold story is the non-human creatures and plants that comprised, shaped, and lived in the hedge – several preserved examples are included in the exhibition. And indeed, termites and natural forces also proved to be antagonistic agents to the unnatural hedge, contributing to the need for constant maintenance. A pile of actual salt on the gallery floor points toward the exorbitant price of salt at the peak of taxation: several months of an average salary.
How does Salt Cosmologies resonate with ongoing global conversations about colonial legacies and resource extraction?
Salt Cosmologies addresses an episode in British colonial history that is widely known, but less so with regard to the specifics of the customs line. By recentring the narrative around salt, the artists have been able to bring together and intertwine several threads that are not usually considered holistically. This is a part of the artists’ way of thinking and working – their name Hylozoic/Desires suggests an equivalence or even re-ordering of the normal hierarchies of matter and living beings.
One example of the intertwining of empire and resource extraction is the Somerset House Salt Office, which was active when the current version of the building was completed around 1786. This Office oversaw the British national interest in salt, from its production to circulation, export, and taxation. While the Salt Hedge was administered from the India Office, which was not based at Somerset House, the two arms of government are connected by the control and taxation of salt.
As a curator, what challenges did you face in bringing this project to life and how do you see it contributing to public discourse on empire, trade, and environmental exploitation?
A large part of what we do through our cultural programme is to provide artists with a platform to explore and address complex histories, including our own at Somerset House. In addition to The Salt Office, the building used to house The Stamp Office as well as the Navy Board. In this way, the ecologies that are of continuing interest to Hylozoic/Desires were a welcome provocation in our programme.
Perhaps the biggest challenge was in fact determining the final material and form for the large installation in the Courtyard space. It was not practical or sustainable to create an actual hedge in the space in February, and so the artists came up with the idea of using textiles hung from a frame to give physical expression idea of a hedge. Seen from above, the line follows the twisting path of the customs line. A further layering of meaning was applied to the fabrics, which were hand-printed by artisans (at Tharangini Studio with Tiipoi Studios, Bangalore) with images of the hedge plants using vegetal dyes. Additionally, the dyes and were affixed to the fabric with salt, further emphasising the relationship between form and content.
