2012–2014, archival pigment print, gouache, watercolour and liquid gold,  15 x 21 cm

In October 2012 my Mother and I travelled to South India, visiting the various villages, towns and areas that we can trace our matrilineal heritage to. My Mother and I went there as outsiders, yet we still are affected by this nation-state we are linked to through a cultural inheritance, passed down from each generation of women before.

I photographed my Mother and I posed as different Indian female figures, mostly Hindu goddesses and religious figures who featured prominently in the stories my Mother and I were told as young girls. The photographs were then painted onto, in a hybridised style of the traditional Indian miniature painting fused with religious poster/calendar art that we grow up seeing in our homes. The imagery painted onto photographs of ourselves constructs idealised and essentialised representations of us and references our inheritance of roles left to fill.