Archiving memories and nostalgia

A host of digital archiving initiatives are underway to preserve India’s art & visual history. The process has acquired a new meaning in the modern era of information explosion marked by a vastly networked and interconnected society. The issue is how would really this play out in the future?

The Internet is not always a reliable source of information owing to lack of authenticity and accuracy of data hence recording and meticulously storing our legacy becomes even more critical. Archiving denotes the custodianship of collective memory, as an expert point out. But who will gather and legitimize it? These concerns are equally relevant to the domain of art. Today, archiving is broadly related to it in two ways—one, as a subject for all artists to work with; and two, as a discipline vital for preserving the knowledge of practice and history.

The Hong Kong-based Asia Art Archive (AAA) recently did a project to digitize critic Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram’s personal archives. This was the institute’s first such project in India, involving Kapur and her artist husband that took almost a year. According to a researcher with AAA, Sabih Ahmed, plans are underway to digitize many other personal artists’ archives.

The Sundaram/Kapur archive of modern & contemporary Indian art comprises rare exhibition catalogues/ brochures over five decades; slides of roughly 4,000 works; the critical writings and lectures etc. Most of it will be digitized and hosted publicly for free access. According to Sundaram, their archival material is currently Delhi-specific. However, it also includes a lot of what came to the capital city from other parts of the country.

Something as basic as an invitation card to a show printed years ago packs a valuable ancillary information and detail. The visual texture of it does inform your brain, as the artist notes, drawing attention to the kind of printing, and the graphic five decades ago… A keen researcher, writer, or historian will see vital clues in some ephemeral material. And from the detail one may construct memory and fathom history.