Common Salt (A Lament)
Moving image / HD Video / 2018
6 minutes and 35 seconds
Collaboration with Sheila Ghelani and Sue Palmer“Thank you so much for this; beautiful, poetic, political, relevant film”
Common Salt (A Lament) is a companion to Sheila Ghelani and Sue Palmer’s performance, Common Salt – a show and tell performance around a table which has toured to libraries, board rooms and museums throughout England. The performance explores the intertwined colonial and geographical history of England and India via an expansive and emotional time-travel beginning with the first Enclosure Act and the start of the East India Company in the 1600s, to 21st century narratives of trade, empire and culture.
Common Salt (A Lament) draws on material from the live performance, focusing on the colonial relationship between England and India through the history of salt taxation and the Great Hedge of India.
The film was installed at B-Side Festival’s Outpost gallery in September 2018 and is now available to view online.