Annah, Infinite

Annah, Infinite' turns dominant narratives of Paul Gauguin's famous painting Annah la Javanaise (c. 1893-94) on its head. The work argues a simple point: there is the possibility that the portrait is a depiction of a pained child. In highlighting the plausibility of this particular scenario in light of how contradictory 'facts' surrounding Annah's life have been assembled in historical narratives, the work draws attention to how able normativity functions within arts institutions to mask colonial abuses. Taking a closer look at the ways in which Annah la Javanaise, with its attendant mythologies of Annah the person or people, circulates in the world: as commodity of the global financial market, and simultaneously, as contradiction of tropes regarding disabled, Southeast Asian girls in the 'developing world'.