Go Away Closer – Dayanita Singh

Go Away Closer is a novel without words. It concerns series of opposites in Singh’s India: presence and absence, reality and dreams, tradition and progress. She is able to express the emotion underlying these often, abstract concepts, because her photography springs from her own intimate experiences. For example, Singh establishes a connection between her personal losses, and the collective sadness due to lost traditions in the face of technology. Such opposites are ultimately irreconcilable, as embodied by the paradox of the book’s title. Singh embraces this uncertainty, and presents visual clues in her photographs into which the viewer can read his or her own biography. Go Away Closer – like all of Singh’s books – is not about answering questions, but considering the emotional fabric from which they arise. This book comes in soft cover, with 31 tritone plates, and 32 pages, measuring 16 x 20 cm.

Artist / Author

Publishing is also a significant part of the Dayanita Singh’s practice: in her books she experiments with alternate forms of producing and viewing photographs. Here, Singh’s latest is the “book-object,” a work that is concurrently a book, an art object, an exhibition and a catalog. Learn more about Singh and her artistic practice on her website.

Sourced / excerpted from this artist’s website. (2022)