The Light and Texture of Memory

The photographic works of Indian artist Dayanita Singh vastly transcend their medium and convey a message that is much greater than the sum of their component parts. Boxes, vitrines, and systems of archival conservation themselves become the “content” of works of conceptual art. The Nobel Laureate for Literature Orhan Pamuk, who pays tribute to her here, has an unmistakable affinity: in his chosen medium of writing, he also transcends appearances. Together these two “examples” of postmodern art embody the entire lesson of the best of the twentieth century. The similarities continue. We know that Dayanita Singh has said many times that she thinks of herself as a “book artist.” Her photographs, indeed, never communicate on their own, but gain in value, power, narrative, and emotion when contained within a larger whole. Singh’s work is cumulative: her photography is the raw material in an artistic project that comes into being one step at a time. In her recent show at Berlin’s Gropius Bau, the bookish and meta-bookish aspects of her practice are unmistakable. Sequences of photographs are set in sumptuous concertina-folded leporello bindings, placed in vitrines, or bound in exquisitely refined volumes, while teakwood, which she has chosen as her signature material, is omnipresent. Singh is most renowned, however, for her “museums” – a fact that could hardly have failed to attract Pamuk’s attention. The elegant architectural structures in which she places her photographs are themselves works of art, establishing, at a glance, the singular power of the project. In that sense, each exhibition is at once an anthology and an archive of her work. Archive is the operative word here: it’s not the photograph, but the incessant act of photographing and cataloguing that so distinguishes her. Of course, there is no mistaking the strength of her photographs. As one would expect, Dayanita Singh has been awarded the prestigious 2022 Hasselblad Prize. Her best-known and most significant projects – from I Am As I Am to Let’s See, and including the portable museums mentioned above, such as Museum of Dance and Museum of Shedding – constitute a powerful and vibrant reflection on her approach, on her world, and on ours, independent of the subject she has chosen. Her most evocative project, however, is perhaps Box 507, which was published in a short run of 360 copies by her private press, Spontaneous Books: because those who acquire it are themselves an active part of the artwork. They change it, and enter into a real and tangible virtuous cycle in which the artist takes them by the hand, inviting them to dance with her. Just as she does with her camera. 
Stefano Salis