Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s Salt & Sand installation is a suspended structure consisting of a scale from one of the fish markets in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. The scale has been modified to balance a bowl of sand with a bowl of salt. The salt and sand are distributed so that the scale is in equilibrium.
By absorbing water from the atmosphere, the weight of the salt increases relative to the weight of the sand during exposure. This work thus shows how a perfect equilibrium very slowly becomes unbalanced over time.
The artist also uses here the stereotypical Western symbolism of the scales as a metaphor for justice, in reference to an event in the colonial history of Western India: the Salt Satyagraha march (the non-violent march of salt). This 24-day march in 1930 against the salt laws of the British government was a decisive moment in the history of India’s independence.
— Francois Schneider Foundation.
