Who Are You?

By Elin Spring

Who are you? I am an American, and in a land of immigrants, that can imply as many permutations as there are languages and dialects spoken across this vast land. Our identities are complex, incubated in family history, impacted by cultural influences and moderated over our lifetimes. Three recently published photobooks by artists who immigrated to the United States explore the knotty web of generational and cultural forces on the formation of personal identity: The Answers Take Time  by Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (Minor Matters/sepiaEYE, 2022), Embrace, by Rohina Hoffman (Schilt Publishing, 2023), and Spin Club Stories by Astrid Reischwitz (Kehrer Verlag, 2022)

Installation view of “The Unremembered: Indian Soldiers of World War II” in the exhibit ReVision: Annu Palakunnathu Matthew at Newport Art Museum, Newport, R.I., 2021-2022, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEye, NYC.

The Answers Take Time is fueled by intellectual curiosity and a rigorous interrogation of historical and cultural identity. It also possesses the intrigue and vivacity of a well-crafted memoir. Photography-based artist and University of Rhode Island professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s combination of British, Indian and American roots, a restless spirit and fiery ingenuity ignite the nine riveting, long-term, interrelated bodies of work in this book. Roughly mirroring “ReVision,” Matthew’s expansive mixed-media exhibit at the Newport Art Museum (R.I.) in 2021-2022, I wondered how a publication could adequately express the enthralling immediacy of the show, but this volume is a tour-de-force.

“Dad and I in car” from the series Fabricated Memories, 1997-2000. Polaroid emulsion transfer on paper, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEye, NYC.

The blueprint for our identity predates our awareness. Beginning with wavy color Polaroid emulsion transfers of her earliest memories in England and evanescent B&W Holga (toy camera) gems from her coming of age in India, Matthew emphasizes impression over veracity in imagery evocative of dreams.

“Billowing Fabric” 1998, from the series Memories of India, 1996-2009, created with Holga (toy) camera, 5″x5″ gelatin silver print, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE, NYC.

Ambiguity ends there, with lancing wit in series like “An Indian From India,” in which Matthew pairs original photographs of native American Indians (1850 – 1910) with identically staged and costumed self-portraits (2001- 2007) that smart with poignancy and humor. Such satiric questioning of cultural norms and biases accentuate their ubiquity. Matthew delivers it with a palatable spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, along with excerpts from an absorbing conversation with Tom Jones II, Ho-Chunk Nation artist and University of Wisconsin -Madison professor.

“Daughters” 2001 Right: Portfolio I. Left: photographer unknown, from the Stephens Collection, date unknown, courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, Diptych from the series An Indian From India, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE, NYC.

“Malti, India, 2014,” Photo animation, 01:32, from the series Open Wound: Stories of Partition, 2014-2021, Photo animations, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE, NYC.

Matthew turns serious and her methodology multi-faceted in several historical revivals. It has been said that war is how we learn geography, and in these series, Matthew envisions how geo-political trauma creates generational scars that transcend geography. Still shots from her photo animations of the enduring legacy of Indian Partition in 1947 and photographs of her ethereal film and etched glass memorial blocks of WWII soldiers fighting with colonial British forces, infuse political events with moving personal histories.

“Kirti, 2006” from the series The Virtual Immigrant, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE, NYC.

“Tuan, Vietnam” 2013-2016, Photo animation 1:26, from the series To Minority Majority, courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE, NYC.

Matthew further expands her inquiry into clashes of cultural identity with serial, lenticular, and double-exposed depictions of Indian “virtual immigrants” who work at U.S. company call centers. Similar portrayals of women immigrants from places of political upheaval like India, Vietnam, and Israel, give rise to a series pondering the imminent transition of the U.S to a minority majority population. The varied, pensive projects within The Answers Take Time honor the past and serve as springboards, asking questions that bear on anyone whose family has immigrated to the U.S. – that is to say, most of us.

“Loose Threads” from the series Generation 1.75 by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

Embrace is a visual and poetically scripted narrative tracing photographer Rohina Hoffman’s bridge between Indian and American cultures. Following her early, indulgent care by grandparents in India, she joined her immigrant parents in the United States at age four. In vibrantly saturated compositions, Hoffman uses traditional symbols of Indian life placed in American settings, juxtaposing visual elements and sometimes flipping the orientation of her images to invoke the internal challenges of assimilation.

“Upended” from the series Generation 1.75 by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

“The Markings of my Discontent” from the series Generation 1.75 by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

In pictures such as her clenched fist adorned in gold bracelets, an early photo of the artist trapped inside a bell jar, and a portrait in which her head is replaced by a coconut held by defiantly outstretched arms, Hoffman’s mellifluous aesthetic contradicts its underlying meaning. These incongruities touchingly portray the inner tumult that Hoffman and many children of immigrants feel as they toggle between attempting to fit in and meeting parental expectations.

“Bell Jar” from the series Generation 1.75 by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

“Called a Coconut” from the series Generation 1.75 by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

Interestingly, Hoffman chose to begin Embrace with sumptuous photographs triggered by a contemporary psychological trauma, the Covid-19 pandemic. In this choreographed series, handheld offerings of fresh produce are made in delectable, wardrobe-coordinated photographs of individual family members. Her saturated squares isolate each torso, emphasizing the offering and the hands that make them, which fortifies their impact and emotional appeal. Like Hoffman’s assimilation series, these pictures center on the importance of symbols. In her graphically bold and inviting images, embellished by an alchemy of poetry and recipe, she conveys the promise of security and nourishment that both family and food provide.

“Artichoke for steaming with aromatics” from the series In Gratitude by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

Psychological parallels between the two series in Embrace are clear. The sections are joined physically and figuratively by a center section of blue pages containing Hoffman’s time-stamped writings that seesaw between her earliest experiences and those during the pandemic. That these writings also appear in two forms of Indian translation is further testimony to the defining and crucial links she feels to both cultures. Each of Hoffman’s written comparisons and visual expressions highlight a clear and continuous psychological thread. Embedded throughout the book’s mindful design is the overarching sentiment of gratitude, aptly expressed in the book’s title.

“Oranges for citrus caprese salad” from the series In Gratitude by Rohina Hoffman, courtesy of the artist.

“Prickly” from the series Stories from the Kitchen Table by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

In Spin Club Stories photographer Astrid Reischwitz harvests the storytelling customs and woven family heirlooms of her ancestral home in rural northern Germany to sow an evocative visual journey. In two interrelated series, she pieces together cultural traditions and memories with snippets of new imagery, honoring her heritage and weaving her own evolving identity as an immigrant to America.

“Dandelion Sculptures” from the series Stories from the Kitchen Table by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

In her first series, “Stories from the Kitchen Table,” Reischwitz collages past and present into allusive queries about her family history and identity. She utilizes old family photographs and fragments of household linens dating back to 1799. She contemporizes these ancestral relics by integrating them with her own pictures of symbolic items such as a traditional bridal neck decoration, native flowers, and broken eggshells. Her horizontal composites read like fragmented timelines, an amalgam of her identity united in a single frame. Melodious and mysterious by design, they serve as a fitting allegory for the fickle nature of memories. Reischwitz sprinkles enlightening captions about emblematic elements that deepen our appreciation for this richly symbolic work.

“Broken” from the series Stories from the Kitchen Table by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Shadow and Light” from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

In her second series “Spin Club Tapestry,” Reischwitz assembles intricate photographic tapestries, expanding the exploration of memory and identity by hand-stitching across her images. Her decorative embroidery physically entwines past and present. The interplay of current narratives with symbolic clues to her family heritage develops not only a deep sense of continuity but a sparkling visual tension.

“Four Did Not Return” from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“The Fall of the Double-Headed Eagle” from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

The mirroring of elements like positive and negative imagery, front and back facing embroidery, and strips of echoing colors and patterns contrast her meticulous artistry with the elusiveness of stories from past generations. Reischwitz’s handiwork mimics the designs on her ancestral linens, but only partially, a nod to the patchy nature of recollection and an invitation to join her in imagining our own developing narratives. In Spin Club Stories, Reischwitz’s imaginative expression of cultural traditions within a contemporary framework evokes a collective American experience, at once enigmatic and exultant.

“First Memory” from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

I find it notable that all three authors include multiple series in their photobooks, a fact that reiterates the complex and multifaceted puzzle of identity. Investigating its formation through the perspectives of geo-political migration, cultural traditions and personal assimilation, these three diverse and beautiful publications concur: it’s complicated. And that’s what makes these visual journeys so riveting.

“The Answers Take Time”

by Annu Palakunnathu Matthew

Essay by Bakirathi Mani

Interview with Tom Jones II

Minor Matters/sepiaEYE, 2022

THE ANSWERS TAKE TIME by Annu Palakunnathu Matthew

“Embrace”

Photographs, Prose and Poetry by Rohina Hoffman

Essays by Paula Tognarelli and Geeta Kothari

Schilt Publishing, 2023

https://www.schiltpublishing.com/shop/books/new-releases/embrace/

“Spin Club Stories”

by Astrid Reischwitz

Essays by Karen Haas and Anika Kreft

Kehrer Verlag, 2022

https://www.kehrerverlag.com/de/astrid-reischwitz-spin-club-stories?___from_store=en