With Museum Bhavan, Dayanita Singh (born 1961) forges a new space between publishing and the museum, an experience where books have the same--if not greater--artistic value as prints hanging on a gallery wall. Consisting of 10 individual “museums” in book form, Museum Bhavan is a miniature version of Singh’s eponymous traveling exhibition, with prints placed in folding expanding wooden structures. The images in Museum Bhavan have been intuitively grouped into lyrical chapters in a visual story such as “Little Ladies Museum” and “Ongoing Museum,” as well as more specific series such as “Museum of Machines.” As in Singh’s first project, Sent a Letter (2008), the books are housed in a handmade box and fold out into accordion-like strips which the artist encourages viewers to install and curate as they wish in their own homes. The exhibition thus becomes a book, and the book an exhibition.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Dayanita Singh: Museum Bhavan.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Photo-Eye Blog
Adam Bell
Offering an intimate look at Singh’s life and concerns, Museum Bhavan is a private museum made public, reflecting not only Singh’s attempts to make sense of her work and expansive archive, but also offering a poetic meditation on the medium and its rich possibilities to order and construct meaning from the past and the world around us.
Huffington Post India
Somak Ghoshal
Museum Bhavan . . . dispenses with specificities . . . it stirs the eye into thought, instead of letting it become fixated on the particulars depicted within each frame.
“Museum of Vitrines,” “Printing Press Museum,” “Museum of Machines,” “Museum of Furniture,” “Ongoing Museum/Museum of Chance,” “Museum of Photography/Museum of the Departed,” “Godrej Museum/File Museum,” “Little Ladies Museum/Museum of Time” and “Museum of Men/Museum of Curiosities” are the nine accordion folded volumes—each only 3.5 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall—housed in the small clamshell case encapsulating photographer and bookmaker Dayanita Singh’s sublime Museum Bhavan. A tenth volume includes two transcribed conversations—one between Singh and publisher Gerhard Steidl, the other between Singh and curator, writer and editor, Aveek Sen. The artist considers each book a museum in and of itself: “The book is a book—a beautiful book—but also an object.” Featured image is from "Museum of Machines." continue to blog
Four-poster beds, swivel chairs and this unusual credenza are among the starring players in the “Museum of Furniture” volume of Dayanita Singh’s magnificent 10-volume Museum Bhavan. Housed in a clothbound clamshell case, this miniature museum contains an enigmatic mix, by category, of Singh’s gorgeous, insistently modest black-and-white photographs. Why is the volume “Little Ladies Museum” also titled “Museum of Time,” and the “Museum of Men” also titled “Museum of Curiosities”? You have to hold this book in your hands and pull each accordion-folded “exhibition” out to truly get the poetry. continue to blog
Friday, April 6, from 3-5PM, Artbook, Steidl, and The Museum of Modern Art C-MAP Asia group invite you to a presentation of Dayanita Singh: Museum Bhavan, a conversation between Dayanita Singh and Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, followed by a book signing. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 vols, 3.5 x 5.5 in. / 298 pgs / 241 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $112.5 ISBN: 9783958291614 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 6/27/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Steidl. Interviews by Aveen Sen, Gerhard Steidl.
With Museum Bhavan, Dayanita Singh (born 1961) forges a new space between publishing and the museum, an experience where books have the same--if not greater--artistic value as prints hanging on a gallery wall. Consisting of 10 individual “museums” in book form, Museum Bhavan is a miniature version of Singh’s eponymous traveling exhibition, with prints placed in folding expanding wooden structures.
The images in Museum Bhavan have been intuitively grouped into lyrical chapters in a visual story such as “Little Ladies Museum” and “Ongoing Museum,” as well as more specific series such as “Museum of Machines.” As in Singh’s first project, Sent a Letter (2008), the books are housed in a handmade box and fold out into accordion-like strips which the artist encourages viewers to install and curate as they wish in their own homes. The exhibition thus becomes a book, and the book an exhibition.
