Annah, Infinite

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An experimental work of creative non-fiction functioning as a tale of art, colonialism, disability, and reclamation of the spirit through the story of a single painting by Paul GauguinAnnah, Infinite turns dominant narratives of Paul Gauguin's famous painting Annah laJavanaise (c. 1893-94) on its head. The work argues a simple point: there is the possibilitythat the portrait is a depiction of a pained child. In highlighting the plausibility of thisparticular scenario in light of how contradictory 'facts' surrounding Annah's life have beenassembled in historical narratives, the work draws attention to how ablenormativity functionswithin 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'. An incisive look at how colonial ableism, racism, and sexism have kept violent legacies on museum walls, it shows empathetic possibilities for imagining otherwise and charts histories of resilience and of disabled people's longstanding activism. Interspersed with the author's own poetry, fiction, and visual art on the painting's subject, this is a book of emotional heft.