Is there a collector’s code?

Photographer Dayanita Singh recently pulled up a home project that used copies of her artwork. This highlighted a question — how should one display art? The art world responds

We live in a post-modern, post-Duchampian world, where technology allows us to reproduce almost anything, both artistic and personal. We can recreate concepts, and change arrangements and assemblage of artwork once it’s been ‘collected’. However, when this is done without artistic permission and consent, it brings us to a very stimulating discussion in the age of the NFT: what are the ethics and when is not okay to do this?

On January 15, photographer Dayanita Singh caused a flutter on Instagram when she questioned (good-naturedly) Mumbai-based interior designer Ravi Vazirani for making copies of her Box of Shedding artwork — one of only five unbound books that she made, each with 30 image cards held together in a wooden structure — and displaying it in his client’s home. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but she wasn’t flattered. (While the display of an artwork is separate from copyright, it must not hinder the work’s integrity or compromise its intention.)