𝗙𝗮𝗶 H. 🍉

It was an absolute honour to write a review for @translatormag for one of the most anticipated releases in disability literature this year: ANNAH, INFINITE by Khairani Barokka. Kak Okka is a Minang-Javanese queer disabled writer, artist and translator from Jakarta, whose works have delved into disability justice and its entanglements with intimate histories of the arts and environment. I've always been deeply grateful to Kak Okka's writing for they introduced me to crip epistemologies. It was in the depths of pandemic lockdown, I first came to know Khairani Barokka's experiments in deconstructing the narratives surrounding this painting, or rather the child that it violated.

​​I first heard about the painting ANNAH LA JAVANAISE. AITA TAMARI VAHINE JUDITH TE PARARI (1893–94) by Paul Gauguin in an article written by Khairani Barokka. Published in The White Review, the article was titled ‘Selected Annahs’, as if out of hundreds of thousands of versions of Annah, only a few had been recovered — seems to have been the catalyst for this book. ANNAH, INFINITE lifts the curtain covering the painting’s frame and all the secrets and past memories attached to the paint and canvas. This book exposes the numerous complex articulations of abuse, violence, pain, and child exploitation, held with generous capacity of hundreds of versions. In each of the painting's reincarnations from archive vaults, the specialised tools for preservation will remove the traces that institutions wish to conceal. We are asked the questions: 'Who is Annah? How did she/they get there? What did she/they experience?'

ANNAH, INFINITE is a radical, defiant reimagining of the alternate stories a child could be captured in the painting, whilst freeing its soul from the violent framing of colonial epistemology. It's an important read especially in this time of grappling with government insecurities and non-transparency; when children's voices are reduced in the struggle; available to purchase at your favourite local bookshop.

Also grab a copy of Translator Mag's issue to read thought-provoking pieces by ingenious thinkers from languages around the world! 🌟