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Volume 81, Number 7 September 1982 Founded 1902

Art news

New Editions

Zarina Hashmi imbues cast paper with an importance rarely encountered in this sometimes problematic medium. Not that the work is self-important, or pretentious - it just isn't cute, and that's an achievement. Looking a bit like thick rectangular cork boards or incised stone tablets, Hashmi's cast multiples contain repeated, but not uniform, patterns. Traces contains rows of a simple motif that looks alternately like a series of houses, a series of the letter "Y" or arches - all of which suggests meaningful inscriptions or archetypes. While the depressions look as though they were carved with a knife, they are actually made from a mold formed out of odd pieces of plexiglass hoarded from Canal Street stores by this Indian-born artist who makes her home in New York. The unevenness of the straight lines  and of the individual shapes within the pattern constitutes an almost playful, teasing attitude towards the skill Hashmi displays and toward the sheer beauty of the cast. Traces, like her other cast pieces, is colored all the way through with ground pigment. Its color is a natural red earth shade that leads her to nickname the work "Terra Rosa." While there is no metallic element in the pigment, the entire piece- which is the color- seems to shine with a kind of inner glow.

Hashmi's cast paper is able to sustain a strong image in a unique format. Far from looking gimmicky, Traces makes other cast paper efforts - most of which are brightly colored and childishly molded- look like flashes in the pan. A work like this causes one to reassess the function and capabilities of paper as well as the meaning of such words as casting and sculpture and relief. It is an edition of 15. Cast by the artist, New York, 1982. Distributed by Orion Editions, New York.