Medium: Hand coloured archival pigment print on Agave paper I Size: Variable I Year: 2025- Ongoing
In this series, I explore postcolonial brown female bodies draped in maps as an outer skin, a cover, and examine how geographical markers and colonial histories shape individual identities and collective experiences, as well as their role in identity politics. Historically, the creation and use of maps have often been tied to the expansion of empires and colonial interests. European powers, in their pursuit of new territories during the Age of Exploration, produced maps that not only charted geographical features but also claimed ownership over lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems. Our present postcolonial bodies, therefore, trace the histories of the slave trade, trade routes, modern migration routes, disputed territories, and indigenous territory demarcations. It is always a question of who controls one's land?
This work for me is an exploration of reclamation—a way to honour the histories of 'Others' while asserting my own identity. The draped areas of my body, adorned with a variety of maps that I have hand-coloured, reflect the intertwined histories often obscured or erased by colonial powers. The draped cloth is a kitchen/dining tablecloth, as well as a white piece of fabric. The use of a white tablecloth (or white linen) in a biblical or liturgical context is deeply symbolic, representing purity, righteousness in European context. The images are staged, where I pose myself under the drape, and the maps are overlaid and hand-painted. Each drawn map represents a landscape of memory, tracing the histories that have been marginalized over time and questioning how the apparatus of state machinery functions.