Independence Days: The Work of Maryam Jafri

Maryam Jafri’s portfolio features three bodies of work that explore archival imagery in relation to cultural and historical representations, addressing the interplay between material and digital archives, and focusing on the preservation and disappearance of images from historical narratives. Jafri’s artistic practice combines found and original material, emphasising extensive research-oriented methodologies while also exploring the roles of chance and intuition in the creation of the final works. Her projects "Independence Day 1934-1975" (2009-2019), "Disappearance Online" (2021), and "Getty vs. Ghana" (2012) exemplify this approach. They investigate subjects such as decolonization processes in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, revealing similarities in Independence Day ceremonies orchestrated by departing colonial powers, as well as the digitization of historical images and the implications for cultural memory and copyright law.