Sadak: Hand Painted Street Signs in India

Since the 1990s, hand-painted signs in India—one of the defining elements of the country’s urban landscape—have been largely replaced by more technologically advanced media. Today, they survive in a vernacular culture quite distinct from large-scale digital productions. The work of the sign-painters represents a visual itinerary through the historical-economic changes of Indian society over the years; paintings that emerge in vivid shapes and colors humanize the sharp aesthetics of the subjects and objects of globalized capitalism. But they’re also just neat things, approached with different tools and from different directions. This one’s like a trip to India in 184 pages.