my mother dreams of Ghalib…

2021

pigment print, 42 x 59.4cm.

This series of portraits is interested in making visible the deeply invisible relationship between feminine desire and the domestic space for women part of the South Asian diaspora. It documents the un-staged everyday private performances of the artist’s mother, which consist of her engaging in everyday household duties whilst bedecked in the jewellery and traditional clothing she brought with her upon migrating to Australia from India. The images intend to capture how diasporic longing often manifests through role-play within the security of the domestic space. The camera enabling an unintrusive insight, without the immediate presence of an audience into the subject’s private performance of her cultural identity.