Underwood

Underwood visualizes the remnants of family life post trauma. These photographs engage with emotional exhaustion and the revival of parent-child dynamics through diasporic experiences.

Underwood is a manifesto of familial ties; admiration and awakening. This photobook, set in the walls of a century-old house in south east england, engages in dialogue between Barkat’s family and the multifaceted history of the house and its inhabiters who came before. As the child of Indian immigrants, Barkat views her surroundings in reference to her diverse heritage where British ideals leave Indian beliefs without nurture. The loss of Barkat’s older brother launched her family into sentimental surrender driving Barkat and her parents to extract a new found character to their eternal abode. Customs and cultures that sit opposite to one another leave Barkat and her family in no-mans land where creation cultivates an intangible memorandum. These photographs encounter power, grief, hysteria but most importantly love. What remains of others and of Barkat’s family creates a unique visual identity that is the essence of this story. Underwood sees through combined histories that journey into everlasting memories. Moments in the garden, on carpets, through windows and under sunlight create passages of time that hold both the past and present in anticipation for a perceivable future. Through these glimpses Barkat and her parents heal, contract and memorialize their sanctuary. Underwood redefines parent-child norms and cross-cultural barriers speaking to the unequivocal human nature that structures us all.