Artistic meanderings through Coolitude

Abstract

Referencing two 19th-century identity photographs of Indian migrants named Beekano and Doorgana, taken from the research of historian Marina Carter at the Mauritian Archives, Flynn has produced artworks using the obsolete method of screen-printing to transform the portraits that originally were to aid an oppressive colonial regime focused on policing and immobilizing its immigrant labour. He has also involved the same two individuals in a fictionalized scene in which a surreal fantasy takes Beekano on a journey where he is stripped of his physical body and disappears to be released before any destination is arrived at.