Voyage a la Riviere des roches

"Voyage a la Riviere des Roches" is a painting that is ideally shown juxtaposed onto a photographic print that is wallpapered onto the wall.

It is an oil of canvas painting that revisits ethnographic portraits done during the colonisation of the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean.

The portraits are of individuals who were made to pose for ethnographic photography by Desire Charnay in 1863 in Reunion Island. The photographic wallpaper print is a derivative of Charnay's photographs, where the subjects disappear into the backdrop that was used for the portrait shoots.

This work is a re-appropriation of historical narratives, through a post colonial lens, and investigated ideas of ethnicity and belonging as well as individuality and self portrayal in the face of the colonial gaze.