AUDIO
UNFOLDING MEMORIES
Audio 7/15
7.
UNFOLDING MEMORIES – Dayanita Singh
0:00
AUDIO
Dayanita Singh
These works by the Indian artist Dayanita Singh occupy a space somewhere between the photobook, the photograph collection, and the museum.
The projects started with small accordion-fold booklets that the artist created for her friends. She pasted in photographs from trips they had taken together and sent them as personal pictorial letters. Building on this idea, she later created the two book objects called Sent a Letter and Museum Bhavan.
She arranged the photographs in sequences that do not read like a traditional story. Instead, connections arise between spaces, objects, and situations. Our gaze wanders from one picture to the next, and we create our own associations.
Time and again, we come across bookshelves, cabinets, or display cases. In other words, precisely those places where people collect, organize, and store things. This ties in with a central theme in Dayanita Singh’s work: the museum. Her books function like small, portable museums in which she collects photographs and places them in relation to one another. At the same time, many of the photographs themselves depict places for collecting and preserving. She thus intertwines content and form.
We see a similar concept in her piece Saligao House Museum. The wooden structure resembles a filing cabinet or a piece of furniture in a collection. In it, photographs are stored and placed on display. At the same time, the piece brings to mind family photos arranged on a dresser or a shelf.
Dayanita Singh clearly demonstrates that photographs are not merely pictures. We collect them, but also save, organize, and place them on display. It is these connections that allow new meanings to emerge—much like in a museum.
The projects started with small accordion-fold booklets that the artist created for her friends. She pasted in photographs from trips they had taken together and sent them as personal pictorial letters. Building on this idea, she later created the two book objects called Sent a Letter and Museum Bhavan.
She arranged the photographs in sequences that do not read like a traditional story. Instead, connections arise between spaces, objects, and situations. Our gaze wanders from one picture to the next, and we create our own associations.
Time and again, we come across bookshelves, cabinets, or display cases. In other words, precisely those places where people collect, organize, and store things. This ties in with a central theme in Dayanita Singh’s work: the museum. Her books function like small, portable museums in which she collects photographs and places them in relation to one another. At the same time, many of the photographs themselves depict places for collecting and preserving. She thus intertwines content and form.
We see a similar concept in her piece Saligao House Museum. The wooden structure resembles a filing cabinet or a piece of furniture in a collection. In it, photographs are stored and placed on display. At the same time, the piece brings to mind family photos arranged on a dresser or a shelf.
Dayanita Singh clearly demonstrates that photographs are not merely pictures. We collect them, but also save, organize, and place them on display. It is these connections that allow new meanings to emerge—much like in a museum.