Visual artist Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, professor of photography and director of the URI Center for the Humanities, describes herself as “transcultural, living between cultures.” Born in England, raised in India, Matthew now makes Rhode Island her home. “I am committed to teaching at a public institution. And URI is wonderful because the University supports my art as research.”
Matthew’s “An Indian from India” diptych series, on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in the American Museum of Natural History’s “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” show, focuses in part on what she describes as her “otherness.” Matthew pairs traditional photographs of Native Americans from the 19th century with self-portraits that mimic these images to create a far from traditional visual experience.
Challenging the viewer’s “assumptions of then and now, us and them, exotic and local,” Matthew creatively uses Photoshop and other tools to manipulate imagery so that the final work exposes stereotyping, assimilation, and the often painful legacies of America’s colonial past. An example: one photograph features Matthew, her step-daughter paired with the 19th century photograph of a Native American mother and child, and is intended to question a relationship that plays not only on the assumptions of someone who looks different but a relationship that contradicts expectations. “Since the portrait is of me, I am in control of how I am being represented. It was a way to hold hands with Native Americans and reverse the gaze.”
As part of her current project, “Majority Minority,” Matthew is photographing immigrant families across several generations and using animation to bring their histories to life. With projections that by the year 2050 today’s minorities will be in the majority, “Majority Minority” demonstrates yet again that Matthew is a visionary in every sense of the word.
Related links: Visit Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s photography website
Photo credit: David H. Wells