By Khairani Barokka, translated from the painting Annah La Javanese.

This is an escape story.

In Annah, Infinite, the dominant narratives surrounding Paul Gauguin’s famous painting Annah la Javanaise (1893-94) are turned upside down. The book argues a simple point: what if the portrait does not depict a romanticised muse, but a pained child, caught in a moment of acute vulnerability?

In questioning the ‘facts’ surrounding Annah’s life, Annah, Infinite draws attention to how historical narratives, shaped by colonial powers, have distorted Annah’s story. It critiques the systems of ablenormativity, racism, and sexism embedded in art institutions, and the way these structures mask the violent colonial legacies still haunting museum walls.

The work doesn't just deconstruct mythologies; it brings to light the material realities of Annah's portrait as both a commodity in the global market and a stark contradiction of the tropes surrounding disabled Southeast Asian girls in the so-called 'developing world.' It is an examination of colonial ableism and a searching exploration of the enduring histories of resistance led by disabled people.

Interspersed with the author’s own poetry, fiction, and visual art on the painting’s subject, this is a book of emotional heft. It asks us all to acknowledge the possibility of pain in every single portrait, as well as the possibility of escape.

*preorders will be despatched after publication date (UK: AUG 19 | US: NOV 11