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in Germany studying silk-screen printing, she arrived in Japan in 1974 "to see paper and prints being made in another tradition. The pulp of which paper is made comes from barks of trees like Kozo, Gampi and Matusmata. The paper is strong but delicate and translucent. It is the world of ukiyo-o (the 'floating world'). To make the paper smooth and opaque fillers are added, like egg shell powder. The printmakers often buy unsized paper and then size it to get the desired effect. Sometimes when I held paper to print, or had to make a mark on it, I was struck by it's beauty and character. I began to think of paper as paper."

The purpose of documenting her passage through different countries is to show how her art has grown - organically as it were - out of more than two decades of a deep and sensitive involvement with papers and printmaking, and the possibilities and promise offered by them. No wonder her involvement with this medium is so intense. "I like its organic character, it's mobility and strength. I don't shun papermaking as a craft. I embrace it as one."

What has evolved out of this ongoing fascination with woodcuts, silk-screen, paper and printmaking is an art form which is simultaneously sculpture, architecture and painting, It is difficult to define what it actually is, so distinct in its own identity. 

Watching Zarina work in her studio in New York can be quite an experience. She makes the pulp which she needs from cotton rags. When the pulp is ready she mixes pigments with it. These are mostly earth pigments, or powered graphite which is also a carbon. She shuns chemicals, man-made or synthetic colours. With the pulp and pigments mixed she then adds size to this mass, which means addition of glue; this makes it astringent enough so it doesn't absorb moisture from the atmosphere. She then lets it stay for a few days so it becomes more pliable to her needs, then pours it into a mould, takes the water out with a sponge, and since all the water cannot be taken out, lets the rest dry in the mould. 

The process of drying can takes two to three weeks. Once absolutely dry, the cast is taken out of the mould, the surface treated, and then rubbed with several materials until its surface has the patina she is looking for. What emerges is a work of art which is at the same time eloquent and mystical, timeless yet original. It is pointless to list the number of shows she has had in different countries of the acclaim her art has received. More important is that through perseverance, sensitivity and inner vision, a new Indian artist with a remarkable art form has emerged on the international art scene. 

Patwant Singh 

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"Traces"  "Steps"

48 DESIGN/January-March, 1982