Les Rencontres d'Arles Rencontres d'Arles: expositions, stages photo / exhibitions, photo workshops.

Siya Singh’s self-portraits are a pointed commentary on the changing identity of an urban Indian woman. They also serve to reflect on the inherent narcissism, which inhabits each of us. The metamorphosis of the child-like woman into a woman who is aware of herself and her sexuality subverts all preconceived notions of Indian femininity. In a milieu, which for the most part is unreceptive and suspicious of her androgynous looks, she pushes the boundaries of conformity through her instinctively ’raw’ images.

Devika Daulet-Singh

SELFPORTRAITS

I began making auto-portraits when I became a subject for an artist book About Turn, representing the Indian contemporary woman. The night before the first shoot for the book, I decided to make a few auto-portraits and see who I was in the image. Who has the ultimate control over myself? What is the relationship I can create with the lens to communicate who I am within the image? Days turned into weeks and months exploring this unknown territory of who I was really? Do I have multiple personalities? Am I a self-voyeur? Or simply a narcissistic photographer?

It was exciting to turn the camera unto myself because this sort of control was a new experience for me. The connection with oneself and ones body became a powerful metaphor for what I could represent. The psychological and external self were two ideas, I wanted to base my control in order to make the images.

The images present not only fragments of my life, but on a deeper level, reveal my anxieties, desires and questions about my place in the society I live in. I was brought up to conform to certain ideals of femininity. My androgynous looks are contrary to the age-old notion of beauty in Indian society. Did I fit in then? What I couldn’t always negotiate in the way I lived, I could through the images I made. I began to explore the boundaries of my own conformity and freedoms as a young woman.

Siya Singh

Exhibition projected at the Atelier des Forges, Parc des Ateliers.

Executive producer: Le Tambour Qui Parle.

Siya Singh

Born 1980 in Pune.

Siya Singh pursued her interest in photography at the London College of Printing (LCP), London and completed her visual arts degree at the Sydney College of the Arts (SCA), Sydney, in 2002. On returning to India, she has been working independently as a photographer. In 2004 she was the subject of an artist book, About Turn – a series of portraits of a young urban Indian woman, photographed by Anay Mann. During the making to the book, Siya began to make self-portraits, which was displayed, alongside the book, as an installation of 250 images – provoking a dialogue on both representation and self-representation.

Siya’s self-portraits investigate the psychological and external dimensions of femininity and identity in a milieu, which for the most part is unreceptive and suspicious of her androgynous looks. Her images provide an insight into the mind of a young urban woman pushing the boundaries of conformity. Often labelled as narcissistic, Siya continues to evolve her work using ‘the self’ as a mirror to society.