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Fine Arts By Marjorie Hussain Pulpitations [[Image of Zarina Hashmi]] A print-maker, a paper sculptor, a committed feminist and a woman who had the courage to chart her own course in life: Zarina Hashmi is many facets rolled into one. I met her through artist Zahoorul Akhlaque, who had seen her work in New York, where Zarina teaches at the New York Feminist Institute. Not satisfied with printing on ready-made paper, Zarina Hashmi, wanted the paper she printed on to be part of her entire art work. So she studied paper-making at traditional centres in India and Japan. Fascinated by the processes and the potential of the paper pulp, Zarina began to envisage a new dimension in art - paper sculpture. She began to experiment with moulds made of plexiglass in which she cast the paper pulp. The results were highly successful and Zarina Hashmi's sculptures are now with many private and national collections all over the world. Said the New York Art News about her in 1982: "Zarina Hashmi imbibes cast paper with an importance rarely encountered in this sometimes problematical medium. A work like this cause one to reassess the function and capability of paper as well as the meaning of such words as casting and sculpture and relief." Looking a bit like rectangular cork boards or incised stone tablets, Zarina's cast multiples contain repeated but not uniform patterns. While the depressions look as though they were carved with a knife, they are actually made from a mould formed out of odd pieces of plexiglass. The unevenness of the straight lines and of the individual shapes within the pattern constitutes an almost teasing, playful attitude towards the skill Hashmi displays and towards the sheer beauty of the cast. Her cast pieces are coloured all the way through with ground pigments. While there is no metallic element in the pigment, the entire work seems to shine with an inner glow. Zarina's cast paper is able to sustain a strong image in a unique format. Paradoxically enough, Zarina Hashmi, who never really had a home of her own, constantly repeats the home motif of her work. One of the pioneers of the feminist movement of the 1960s, Zarina has struggled hard to achieve her present standing in the art and feminist world, sacrificing marriage, home, and family in the process. Not that she has any regrets on that score. Presently, Zarina is exhibiting a series of paper cast, multiple images resembling minute houses and tepees, in New York. She plans to exhibit her work in Pakistan at the end of this year. The little girl who grew up in Aligarh modelling house out of mud and clay has come a very long way. She retraces here her eventful sojourn in the art world... Q. What made you take to art? Were any of your family members into it? A. Oh no! Our house was rather devoid of art apart from some Chughtai reproductions and things like that. We always had lots of books on art though, and between our collection and the local library I learnt all about the European artists and the various art movements. I used to take great plea- 80 The Herald, June 1985
