File Room

2011

Medium: Inkjet prints (5)
Dimensions: Each image, approx: 38 × 38 cm (15 × 15 in.); each frame: 59.7 × 59.9 × 3.8 cm (23 9/16 × 23 5/8 × 1 1/2 in.)
Genre: photograph
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago

Styles

About

In India, archivists design their own structures, whether it be metal or wood, and most of the time also design their own catalogue systems. I find the thought of the secrets and knowledge contained in all that paper deeply moving.—Dayanita Singh, 2013

More by Dayanita Singh

We have the same gestures, even though Ayesha was not born from my stomach, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1991

Taking Ayesha to school, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1992

To bless the newborn child, I am dancing in front of the house, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1994

When I went to meet Ayesha, Chaman had me tortured by the police. In my pain I ran to Dayanita’s house to make a record of my pain, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1998

When I went to give blessings, I loved to talk to the women and to hear their joys and sorrows, , from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1994

File Room [3]

Dayanita Singh, 2011

Chaman tries to humor Ayesha before taking her away. I fear that she will make Ayesha into a singing girl, and I wanted to make her an educated and respectable woman, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1999

For Ayesha's third birthday, we hired a live band and dressed Ayesha like an English girl, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1993

File Room [5]

Dayanita Singh, 2011

My beautiful monkey Shabnam (my eunuch brother’s name) that was killed by the Muslims. They said a monkey is a Hindu god and therefore cannot live in a Muslim graveyard. So they poisoned him, from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 1999

Untitled

Dayanita Singh, 2006

I try so hard to please Ayesha, to make jokes. To win her back I even bought a computer, but . . ., from the series "Myself Mona Ahmed"

Dayanita Singh, 2000