VOID has released "Sistermoon," a compelling new photography book by artist Siri Kaur that chronicles over 30 years of intimate family documentation. The book centers on Kaur's youngest sister, Simran, and presents an unconventional family album that explores the cycles of life, transformation, and the complex dynamics of belonging and observation within familial relationships.
The publication combines Kaur's personal photographs with images from her family archive, creating a narrative that questions fundamental themes of identity and connection. "The passage of time is relentless, never ending, back and forth. The time that passes between us being born and having our own kids isn't actually that long in the scheme of the universe, just a blink," Kaur reflects on the temporal nature of her work.
Kaur's biographical background significantly informs the project's narrative structure. The book opens with a chronological timeline featuring photographs from her mother's traditional family, captured in the 1950s by her grandfather. Born into a cult environment, Kaur includes documentation of her parents' 1976 wedding at the Happy Healthy Holy Organization, known as 3HO. After the family's departure from the cult, her father established a rural living community in Vermont, where Kaur's siblings continue to reside today.
The artist's unique position as both family insider and outsider shaped her photographic approach and strengthened her relationship with her sister through collaborative image-making. "Photography enabled her to observe, catalogue and connect," the book notes. Kaur explains her perspective: "I remember when you were really little and I was a teenager, you would just look at me with complete and utter fascination because I had a woman's body and you were a kid. I think for me when I was photographing you as a kid and young teenager, I had been through what you were experiencing not that long before. I remembered the feeling of my body growing and changing and I understood what was coming as you morphed from being a little kid into a woman."
The visual narrative employs recurring motifs and symbolic elements throughout its pages. Kaur incorporates landscape photography and nature imagery to embed a sense of magical spirituality into the work. Water appears as a consistent theme, while talismanic creatures including horses, rabbits, owls, tiny snails, and frogs punctuate the portraits, creating references to fairytale narratives and the uncanny. These elements frame the universal experiences of transitioning through childhood, adulthood, and motherhood.
The collaborative nature of the project extends beyond mere documentation to address themes of agency and control. "It really also comes down to this way that I think we as sisters and artists here are trying to take the shame and take control of it ourselves. We are taking control of our own image. The control of it all is why I'm a photographer. You have a lot of trust in me and it's one of the most meaningful relationships of my life," Kaur states about her work with her sister.
Siri Kaur brings extensive credentials to this personal project. Originally from Maine and currently based in Los Angeles, she holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and both an MA and BA from Smith College, Massachusetts. Her artistic practice focuses on examining identities that occupy dualities, diversity, and contradiction. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious venues including Aperture Foundation in New York, Camera Club of New York, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, and Vermont Center for Photography, among others.
Kaur's photographs and exhibitions have received critical attention from major publications including Artforum, Art ltd., Art Practical, Artillery, Double Blind Magazine, Flaunt, Granta, The Los Angeles Times, Musee Magazine, The New Yorker, Purple, Wallpaper, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She served as Professor of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design from 2007 to 2018 and currently teaches at UCLA.
"Sistermoon" is published as a hardcover volume with silkscreen printing, measuring 23.3 x 28.1 cm. The book is available through VOID's online store for 65 euros, offering readers an intimate glimpse into the profound bond between two sisters and the transformative power of long-term photographic documentation.
