Re-take of Amrita
November 2001
8.5 x 9.75 inches
56 pages
ISBN : 978-81-85229-49-2
Re-take of ‘Amrita’ is a book of 38 digital photomontages by Vivan Sundaram, with a preface and annotation by the artist-author. These montages are the result of a ‘collaborative’ photographic project: between Umrao Singh Sher-Gil (1870–1954), the ‘essential’ photographer (who took numerous self-portraits), and Vivan Sundaram, who orchestrates with a digital wand, archival photographs of the Sher-Gil family. Vivan enters the space of the Sher-Gil homes and makes the members of the family enact (and re-enact) moments of radiating desire under his direction. The ‘encounters’ generated in this process of re-casting the family in new roles elaborate into a fictional narrative. The central axis of the ‘cinematic plot’ is the relationship between the father, Umrao Singh and the artist-daughter, Amrita (1913–41).