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Paradise Lost

Artist Statement

These photos were made in association with the final paper that addresses postcolonial traumas and hybridity with nature in the diasporas of Shani Mootoo's Cereus Bloom at Night and Bhanu Kapil's "Seven Poems for Seven Flowers and Love in All Its Forms".

As mentioned in the paper, both writers through their unique diasporic experiences and postcolonial understandings attempt to create a liminal space for those of their own diaspora and for those of other colonized diasporas. In a similar manner, "Paradise Lost" addresses the struggles of postcolonial nations through specific visualizations of the Tamil diaspora. 

Specifically the outer photos create an outline of the Northern region of Sri Lanka, which is the ancestral home of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. With this border as a guide, themes of trauma and hybridity are represented as support to arguments made in the final paper and to illustrate the divide of the diaspora from the ancestral homeland. Regardless of the time and distance away from the land, traumas still reverberate through the diaspora. 

The photo in the centre of the map illustrates the acceptance and hybridization of the westernized diaspora with nature as a means of connecting to the past. The hybridized individuals is surrounded by the liminal boundary created by past and present, east and west, home and home. This acts as a border to safeguard newly regained agency and precious memories of "Paradise Lost".

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