The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive
This article presents artwork from the project, ‘The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive’, which memorializes the legacy of Indian indenture by recording the flora brought by indentured workers as they exist in the midst of contemporary social life and in the regio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2024-05-01
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| Series: | Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/jofstudindentleg.4.1.0059 |
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| _version_ | 1846140203486412800 |
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| author | Gabrielle Jamela Hosein |
| author_facet | Gabrielle Jamela Hosein |
| author_sort | Gabrielle Jamela Hosein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article presents artwork from the project, ‘The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive’, which memorializes the legacy of Indian indenture by recording the flora brought by indentured workers as they exist in the midst of contemporary social life and in the region’s landscape. In the project, mehndi works as a decolonializing and embodied, post-indenture feminist aesthetic praxis and a method for contributing to a new world visual archive. Indo-Caribbean imaginative visual archives can challenge gendered and racialized exclusions in colonial and creole visual representations, and can instead image indenture and post-indenture histories in ways that are accessible, inclusive, consensual and popular; connecting all in the Caribbean and its diaspora to the afterlife of indenture. The article reflects on the images produced, how they echo biographical and fictional writing, and how they critically engage with the orientalising lens of colonial-era photography. In presenting these original designs of a botanical imaginary, the project aims to transform mehndi in post-indenture sites so that art forms which are both traditional and contemporary can be seen as post-plantation techniques for making memory-work an act of beauty. Inspired by his scholarship and encouragement, the project is dedicated to beloved Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-54d2b43bf9c24c12b9a9c560a34e6074 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-1999 2634-2006 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-05-01 |
| publisher | Pluto Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies |
| spelling | doaj-art-54d2b43bf9c24c12b9a9c560a34e60742024-12-05T17:00:19ZengPluto JournalsJournal of Indentureship and its Legacies2634-19992634-20062024-05-0141599310.13169/jofstudindentleg.4.1.0059The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archiveGabrielle Jamela HoseinThis article presents artwork from the project, ‘The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive’, which memorializes the legacy of Indian indenture by recording the flora brought by indentured workers as they exist in the midst of contemporary social life and in the region’s landscape. In the project, mehndi works as a decolonializing and embodied, post-indenture feminist aesthetic praxis and a method for contributing to a new world visual archive. Indo-Caribbean imaginative visual archives can challenge gendered and racialized exclusions in colonial and creole visual representations, and can instead image indenture and post-indenture histories in ways that are accessible, inclusive, consensual and popular; connecting all in the Caribbean and its diaspora to the afterlife of indenture. The article reflects on the images produced, how they echo biographical and fictional writing, and how they critically engage with the orientalising lens of colonial-era photography. In presenting these original designs of a botanical imaginary, the project aims to transform mehndi in post-indenture sites so that art forms which are both traditional and contemporary can be seen as post-plantation techniques for making memory-work an act of beauty. Inspired by his scholarship and encouragement, the project is dedicated to beloved Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo.https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/jofstudindentleg.4.1.0059 |
| spellingShingle | Gabrielle Jamela Hosein The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies |
| title | The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| title_full | The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| title_fullStr | The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| title_full_unstemmed | The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| title_short | The botanical afterlife of indenture: Mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| title_sort | botanical afterlife of indenture mehndi as imaginative visual archive |
| url | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/jofstudindentleg.4.1.0059 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gabriellejamelahosein thebotanicalafterlifeofindenturemehndiasimaginativevisualarchive AT gabriellejamelahosein botanicalafterlifeofindenturemehndiasimaginativevisualarchive |