Queering

The reader "Why Art Criticism?" is an attempt to bring a diverse range of art-critical voices and perspectives into conversation with each other, with texts form the 18th century to the present. Rebecca Hanna John's contribution functions as an introduction to a selection of Adwait Singh's writing: "Staying With the Sirens" (2018), which was written several months before the #MeToo movement erupted in the Indian art world in October 2018, "Cracks in the Wall" (2019), which is a review of Ayesha Singh's show It was Never Concrete at Shrine Empire Gallery in New Delhi, and "Into the Light" (2020), a review of Salman Toor's show I Know a Place at Nature Morte in New Delhi.

Adwait Singh is an independent curator and art theorist based in New Delhi. They do not hide their critical standpoint––on the contrary, their analysis of political circumstances not only informs their clear statements on social media platforms, it also shapes Singh’s art critical writing in a way that has been unusual in the Indian contemporary art world for too long. The tone that Singh chooses for their art critique oscillates between irony, sharp political analysis, display of personal feelings and hopefulness for a possible queer-feminist future.