In this body of work, I have been ‘interacting’ with the book India on the Brink (1931). My interaction includes working into the book pages with etchings and annotations, and onto the cover with screen printing. It is through this interference with a found object, that has allowed me to become the author of it.

My aim was to bookend my Granddad’s life by overlapping images of him, on his deathbed, onto pages that were published around the time he was born. It was extremely important to tie the writing back into colonialism, since he was my direct link to pre-independence and pre-partition. It seemed fitting to choose a book in this subject matter rather than a random book of the time. Also by doing so it links my printmaking to my practice and research, which both enquire about colonialism, postcolonialism, and Orientalism.

Within South Asia on the Brink (2021), the prints gradually get darker and darker as the book progresses.  I wanted to ‘change’ the narrative of the book, which links to my desire to reclaim and alter white telling’s of history for they supported Western ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’ (Said’s Orientalism). Therefore, I wanted to cover and hide certain pages to alter how the book would be read and interacted with. Instead of him fading away, the details begin to get ambiguous, and he slowly gets annihilated by washes of grey and black.

To watch the video of the entire book, click on the link South Asia on the Brink (2021).