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Artist/Maker
Dayanita Singh
(Indian, born 1961)
Publisher
Spontaneous Books, New Delhi
Date2018
Medium30 image cards, teak wood enclosure, and inscribed napkin
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/4 × 6 1/4 × 1 1/8 in. (21 × 15.9 × 2.9 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, The Paul Parker Memorial Fund
Object number2019.8
Not on view
DescriptionPothi Box, one of Dayanita Singh’s many innovative “book-objects,” is made up of thirty unbound offset-printed photograph cards in a wooden container. Produced in an edition of 360, the photographs found in Pothi Box depict stacked archival documents and unknown bundles of material, as well as novels and towers of film. The images of accumulated objects reflect the concepts of gathering and interconnectedness. These ideas are also present in the construction of the “book-object” itself, as the thirty photographs are always meant to be kept together and considered as a unit. Singh’s “book-objects” are created in a process that she refers to as “book-building,” where her photographs become building blocks for a final product. According to Singh, photography is “just a medium, and I excavate forms out of it. In some ways, I am the medium: things pass through me and become something else.” In terms of display, Pothi Box is meant to either be hung as a complete set within its wooden structure (with the visible front image being interchangeable), or placed on a table. The fluid nature of its display highlights how Pothi Box occupies a “third space” between the art gallery and the publishing house. It is a book made for handling, a collage made for rearranging, and a window for contemplating. Singh emphasizes and celebrates the mutability of her work, urging viewers to constantly question its meaning: “It’s always good to ask why: Why is it a book? Why is it an exhibition? Why is it in a frame?”
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2018
Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY. "Dayanita Singh: Pop-up Bookshop / My Offset World." October 18 - December 16, 2018.
Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY. "Dayanita Singh: Pop-up Bookshop / My Offset World." October 18 - December 16, 2018.
Provenance
2019: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Callicoon Fine Arts, New York.
Inscribed
"POTHI BOX © SPONTANEOUS BOOKS" etched on bottom of wood enclosure; "Pothi Box" stitched into fabric in black yarn; each card: "[card number]/30 POTHI BOX SPONTANEOUS BOOKS © Dayanita Singh" printed on verso at lower edge in black ink; colophon on verso of card 30.
Alyson Shotz
Date: 2019
Medium: Suite of four salt print photograms within a portfolio case with colophon
Object number: 2019.14.1-4
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2015
Medium: Glass and plastic beads, tin cones, steel and brass studs, nylon fringe, and artificial sinew on repurposed wool army blanket, mounted on repurposed canvas punching bag with steel chain
Object number: 2016.5
Unknown artist, Roman (Ancient)
Date: 1st century
Medium: Drawn and tooled glass
Object number: 2015.6.36
Unknown artist, Roman (Ancient)
Date: 1st century
Medium: Drawn and tooled glass
Object number: 2015.6.44
Thomas Nast
Date: published February 6, 1875
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: S2019.2.103
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: mid 4th century B.C.E.
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 1929.43
Tony Feher
Date: 1996
Medium: Plastic bottles, water, food dye, wire and rope
Object number: 2012.3.4
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2023
Medium: Acrylic, graphite, kitakata paper, coated pastel paper
Object number: 2024.20.1-4