Recorded in: Montreal /Delhi
Episode Length: 44:41
Air Date: May 10, 2021
Produced by: Jordan Weitzman
Edited by: Ellen Payne Smith
I could speak about two parts of Dayanita Singh that interest me a lot, but it's really the combination of the two that make her so compelling. The first - and this is the pre-requisite of course - is the work. The way in which she's carved out a niche in photography which has a focus on bookmaking, but then also plays with exhibiting. She's always teetering on the edge of both, blurring the lines between the two. Whether it's books on the wall, or photos housed in the handcrafted wooden boxes she makes, form is always being played around with. Photos are just raw material, she says, which she uses in service of something she's making.
The other part is her personality - her being and energy which drives all the work. An artist, a photographer, a bookmaker, an ambassador for her work, a promoter, Dayanita Singh, though celebrated, collected internationally by the worlds finest museums, published by Steidl, and shown at top galleries, still has a kind of DIY attitude to her practice. If she doesn't do it and make it happen, who will?
We had this conversation remotely, I in Montreal and she from her apartment in Delhi.
Installation view of Sent a Letter by Dayanita Singh at Callicoon Fine Arts, 2019
Zakir Hussain, Dayanita Sing’s first book
Installation view of Museum of Chance by Dayanita Singh at MoMA, 2013