Art historian Professor Susan Best will give a tour of Maryam Jafri: Independence Day 1934–1975 on Saturday 6 August at 3pm. This is the first solo exhibition in Australia of Jafri’s work and presents fifty-seven photographs from her project Independence Day 1934–1975 (2009–ongoing). This photographic installation documents the first independence day ceremonies in former European colonies across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, between 1934 and 1975.
Sourced by the artist from twenty-nine archives housed in countries such as Syria, Kenya, Senegal, India, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Algeria, the photographs are arranged into a grid according to the characteristics of the ceremony, creating a sense of a repetitious ritual.
Professor Susan Best is the convenor of Fine Art and Theory at Griffith University, and specialises in critical theory and modern and contemporary art. Her most recent book is titled Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing in Contemporary Art Photography (forthcoming Bloomsbury 2016). The book offers a new way of thinking about the role of politically engaged art. It examines the work of five women photographers from the southern hemisphere who are pioneering a reparative approach to art about shameful histories.
