2025 Theses Master's

Artmaking As Intervention in Oral History Methodology: Painting Portraits of Queer/Trans South Asian Chosen Family

Garg, Ananya

My project is uniquely situated at the intersection of oral history and visual art, specifically using painting as an intervention into traditional oral history methodology. In my project, I explore oral history and chosen family through the process of painting a set of 100 oil portraits I completed during the month of March 2025. This visual art element is not simply an illustration project, but a methodological experiment and intervention in listening, seeing, and representing community histories.

In my paintings, I bring myself into the work through my hand, through my paintbrush, through the choices I make with the colors I mix and the choices I make with regards to shadow and light. I bring in my chosen family: people, memory, material objects, through intimate vignettes that tell a story beyond what words can offer, through the collective of all 100 paintings.

My approach to painting mirrors my approach to conducting oral history interviews, the processes joined in their shared goals of deep listening, reciprocity, and collaboration. The 100 portraits allowed me to represent members of my chosen family who were not able to be part of the oral history interview for a variety of factors. For example, I created portraits of the young children in my life, of people who have passed away, the people who logistically were not able to
be interviewed, or those who could not participate for reasons of safety, privacy, or other forms of refusal. I also brought in self-portraiture, representing myself at different ages, as well as nonhuman animals into the collection.

These paintings are also doing the work of subverting traditional family portraits, which are often static, realistic, and whole portraits of peoples faces and/or bodies. My work experiments with fracture, focus, and close-looking, addressing and emphasizing the themes of chosen family: intimacy, care, and attention.