Annu Palakunnathu Matthew


Annu Palakunnathu Matthew is a professor of art in the University of Rhode Island's Department of Art and Art History. She is also currently the director of the URI Center for the Humanities. Matthew’s photo-based work draws from her experience of having lived between cultures and about being an immigrant in the USA. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, on CNN Photo Blog, and in Buzzfeed. It is also included in the book Blink which compiles the work of 100 contemporary photographers. Her work has been exhibited at her gallerist, SepiaEye, in New York The RISD Museum; Guangzhou Biennial of Photography, China; Tang Museum, New York; and The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Photographic works

To Majority Minority

By 2050, the U.S. populations once called "minorities" will become the majority. To Majority Minority examines these changes, and the new, multicultural America, in terms of cultures, religions and stories. The portfolio explores the generational transition from immigrant to native within families, starting with portrait photographs from immigrant’s albums. Old photographs reflect where immigrants have come from, revealing family histories and shared stories of immigration.

An Indian From India

An Indian From India plays on the confusion between Native Americans and Indians from India. It uses photographs of Native Americans from the Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century that perpetuated and reinforced stereotypes and finds similarities in how Nineteenth and early Twentieth century photographers of Native Americans looked at what they called the primitive natives, similar to the colonial gaze of the Nineteenth century British photographers working in India.

Open Wound

Open Wound uses photo animations to explore the turmoil of families impacted by the Partition of India in 1947. It has been 65 years since the Partition, where 12 million people were displaced within three months and over a million died. But unlike tragedies such as the Holocaust, there is no memorial about the Partition. There is little for the larger public to understand and commemorate those impacted by this tragedy.

ReGeneration

ReGeneration builds on the presumed veracity of photographs to spur a critical reflection on the power of photography and its effect on the perception of memory, family and the warping of cultures over time. The final ephemeral animation is built from archival images and recent photographs of three or more generations of women. The digital technology and animation makes it appear that the old and new images flow one into another.

Memories of India

Memories of India reflects Matthew's mixed background, as she was born in England, raised in India and now is living in America.The images are a time warp, revisiting the sights, sounds, and smells of her childhood impressions of her cultural homeland, India. The images are captured by the use of a simple plastic-lensed Holga camera, that makes images with a dreamy quality.

Fabricated Memories

Fabricated Memories uses digital technology and Polaroid film to reconstruct memories, combining recent images with childhood snapshots. The results are seemingly realistic images of events that never happened but reflect emotions from the artist's childhood. A small handmade accordion book presents the images as Polaroid emulsion transfers. Some pages also include text. To emphasize the fact that Matthew's father died due to smoking, the book is covered in paper made from tobacco leaves and is presented in a cigarette box. The paper has been stained with tobacco juice so that the viewer experiences the tobacco through sight, touch and smell. The pages of the book are made from a delicate handmade paper to suggest the images are very fragile.

Bollywood Satirized

Bollywood Satirized, a digital portfolio, is a critical commentary on the societal expectations for women growing up in India. The work uses movie posters which reflect the popular culture of Indian life. The visual and aural presence of cinema in India is the result of the largest commercial film industry in the world that produces over eight hundred movies a year and reaches approximately 3.5 billion people. Most of the 2 billion dollar industry is concentrated in Bombay, which is also called “Bollywood”.

Awards

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