I'm Sleeping

Gift of Charlotte and Alan Artus

Katyayani Singh produced I'm Sleeping to explore the feeling of isolation and her relationship with her mother, separated by time and distance and mediated through a smartphone. After receiving her BA from the University of New Delhi, Singh left India to pursue her MFA in Chicago. She explains, “I noticed the correlation between the medium I was using to retain contact with [my mother], and its own properties. The way a phone uses terminology like 'Snooze' when choosing to delay time, I was enacting the same avoidance through text.”

In the video, “I’m Sad” or “I’m Lonely” are typed out on screens like text messages—letter by letter—deleted, and then replaced with “I’m Sleeping.” In each case, Singh ultimately elects to disguise her true feelings and retreat further into herself. She uses fluctuations in pacing and rhythm to dissolve any sense of a timeline or chronology, amplifying the depth of isolation and hopelessness which she conveys.