Shilpa Gupta 1000 Queues, 2014 C-print + DIASEC 62.98 x 57.96 inches 1000 Queues comprises of 100 photographs multiplied into about a 1000. The 100 different photographs depict people standing in long queues in different spaces in the city – bus stops, government depots, railway stations, schools, festivals or even to greet a couple at a wedding. We all know too well the lethargy of standing in queues, waiting for an action to happen. In line with the absurdist play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett, in which people wait for a somebody who never comes, queuing serves as a metaphor for a life in expectation and anticipation. ’Untitled’ also talks about the repetitiveness of our actions, whose monotony reminds of the logic of desire. Fuelled by the sheer quantity of mechanically reproduced images and their seductive power, the desire is doomed to remain unfulfilled. Some of the photographs in this compelling mosaic have been reversed, expressing a sense of suspension, as if the fulfillment of the urban reverie of desires is frozen in time.
