Skewed Histories and Site Lines draws from Singh's ongoing research on women's contribution to monumental and private architecture in India. Systematically overlooked and erased in our history books, the buildings are a testament to women's stories, against the idea of their passivity or silence. This page contains images and a short text about the facade work, along with the participatory gathering created in collaboration with Jyothidas K.V. as a response to the facade titled Ingredients of Encounters: Dismantling Site Lines. All three works were presented at the same space and within overlapping time periods.
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In school, we are often taught perspective drawing by sketching a triangular road that tapers into a vanishing point with a horizon line running through it. This is not a neutral way of seeing the world — it brings some things into focus and obscures others. With the Facade work, Singh proposes that we have the ability to challenge this. What if there were many vanishing points, many overlapping histories and intersecting narratives? What if there were many shifting perspectives or altered horizon lines?
This work layers the stories of five women, who as patrons and architects, shaped Indian architecture over the past millennium. The vanishing points in Singh’s design can be thought of as ideological prescriptions through which their histories along with their buildings flip, splice and overlap. When seen as the foreground of the work however, the photographs expand and stand upright, affirming their existence and lasting importance. Articulating their overlooked pasts enables us to honor their powerful presence in our cities and our histories. Singh reminds us, “we have to reiterate the existence of multiple truths over and over again until our history is written differently.”
While the facade pays homage to the work of five visionary women, we also recognise the countless women who have and continue to shape our constructed landscapes. This includes those who have built their own homes, started new practices, or contributed to creating spaces—even if they may never hold the formal title of ‘architect’. Their contributions endure.
This work includes fragments from Queen’s Stepwell (Rani ki Vav) | Patan, Gujarat, built in 11th century (either 1032 or 1063 CE, discovered c.1940s, restored c.1986) commissioned by Queen Udayamati; Humayun’s Tomb | New Delhi, Delhi, built between 1569-70, commissioned by Bega Begum, or Haji Begum; Basilica of Our Lady of Graces | Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh, built in 1822
commissioned by Begum Samru, born Farzana Zeb un-Nissa, baptised as Joanna Nobilis Sombre; Government Home Science College | Chandigarh, Punjab, built in 1961 by Urmila Eulie Chowdhury; and Kachi Kothi, also known as the Mud House | Anangpur Village, Surajkund, Haryana, built in 1996 by Revathi Kamath.
Ingredients of Encounters: Dismantling Site Lines
Carefully attend
a floating site
a live arc-hive
of fragmented trajectories of the present.
Ayesha Singh and Jyothidas K.V. respond to the IAF facade by hosting fleeting gatherings, extending the drawn lines to lines of poetry, readings, conversations, and ephemera. Encountered as a participatory performative picnic, this archiving exercise looks to engage, capture, and share questions that form the construction of our perspectives.
Carrying a weighted horizon, each participant reads, engages in and contributes to a shared gathering on top of a 'picnic mat' made using remanants of the facade's perspective lines- weaving and dispersing their precision. The text read contained 17 stanzas, a few of which are written below.
Remember,
bodies as pillars
erased through time
as lines of sight
must contain only one thought, one mind, one people
a one point perspective
Of decolonised histories
The curation of camaraderie,
the collective cultural congregation of closed doors
Pillars to post, post to pillars,
A loosely bound web of checkposts
A swaying mesh of floating pillars,
Held in place by frothing words.
One, two, three and four,
post to pillars, pillars to post
A constant rebuild of lies over the rubbles of truth,
up again, down again.
Supported by
MASH Foundation and India Art Fair
Photo Credits
Sonal Sood (Humayun’s Tomb), Kavya Jain (Government Home Science College) and Ayodh Kamath (Kachi Kothi)
Final Facade and Performance Images
courtesy IAF and photographer Jeetin Sharma and performance participant Khushi Mishra
Credits
The artist would like to recognise the contribution of people without whom this work would not have been the same: Abhimanyu Dalal, Abhiviraj Dev Singh, Adishree Singh, Akshita M. Bhanj Deo, Amarjit Kumar, Anica Mann, Anushka Rajendran, Anwar Thikedar, Aparajita Jain, Arjan Duggal, Mohd Atif, Ayodh Vasant Kamath, Bamby Singh, Debalina Roy, Fazal Ahmad Faruqui, Himanshu Kulshreshtha, Jaya Asokan, Jyothidas K.V., Kanchi Jain, Maanav Jalan, Madhavi Desai, Maithili Raut, Martand Khosla, Md Ajhar, Md Arman, Md Faiyaz, Md Kari, Md Mahbullah, Md Muntazir Alam, Md Samir, Md Sanjar, Md Shamim, Md Shanawaz, Mehmood Alam, Munazir, Neetu Advani, Peter Nagy, Rahul Lamba, Rajkosor, Ritu Kumari, Sanjana Jain, Sapna Desai, Sarovar Zaidi, Satinder Singh, Shamsher Alam, Shivam Talwar, Sonal Sood, Srishti Sainani, Sumeet Mitroo, Suresh Mahto, Tanya Munjal, Tarika Khattar, Umah Jacob, Vatsala Sethi, Vidisha Aggarwal
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