For an Indian, like me, the biennial was a place of ambiguity, of familiarity mixed with otherness. In Vivan Sundaram’s black-and-white photomontages “Re-take of Amrita,” 2001–2002, the artist injects the bewitching visage of his aunt—the painter Amrita Sher-Gil—onto photographs taken by Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, Amrita’s father and Vivan’s grandfather. Amrita gazes out at us like a phantom, inhabiting images in which she had no “original” presence. Sundaram’s “re-takes” were especially poignant seen in Lahore, where his aunt once lived. In this sense, his work brought her home. Yet the return was an uneasy one. If in Pakistan she is celebrated as a Lahori, in India she is claimed as an Indian modernist. “Re-take” underscores this double identity.
