Abstract

This thesis examines personal memory and inter- and transgenerational transmission, employing postmemory as a key interpretative lens to analyze the media work of New Delhi-based artist Kriti Arora’s five-minute silent film THIS or THAT? Or NEITHER? (2005) and Toronto-based artist Sharlene Bamboat’s And Memory (tentative title, 2011–in-progress). These artworks explore family histories associated with the artists’ great-grandfathers before and after the 1947 partitioning of the Indian subcontinent. This thesis argues that Arora and Bamboat’s artworks employ postmemorial aesthetics that speak to the complexity of navigating between the traumatic histories that the artists inherited and their own lived experiences, which are occupied by the transmitted knowledge. Furthermore, these autobiographical works substantially bring instances of historical trauma into the present to comment on how it continues to affect individuals generationally removed. In addition to Arora and Bamboat, over the last sixteen years, a number of artists such as Indian artist Nalini Malani, Pakistani artist Rashid Rana and Toronto-based artist Sarindar Dhaliwal, all of whom grew up during and after decolonization and nation-building, have negotiated the effects of Partition within their personal histories and have made artworks that focus on historical trauma and cultural memory relating to Partition, as well as the contemporary realities of Indo-Pakistani hostilities. This thesis contributes to emerging research on the effects that Partition has had and continues to have on the practices of contemporary artists of South Asian descent.