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DAWN, FRIDAY, DEC 27, 1985 (P III)

By Rabiya Javeri
In 1969 the President's Award for Graphics, in India, was presented to an interesting female artist Zarina Hashmi. This year, she is going to exhibit her etchings, lithographs and paper sculptures in Karachi for the first time.

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Ms. Zarina Hashmi stands beside one of her etchings.

Artist with a mission

Zarina is both an artist and an active feminist with a dedicated cause. Her goal is a well-known one - the uplift of women worldwide - but she has adopted a unique stance. She believes that by reviving dying art forms of the rural world, and thus achieving economic independence, women of our land can raise their standard of living and gain a degree of independence. To this end she has forged ahead and achieved considerable success.
With a resume that is as impressive as it is long, Zarina has done the full circle. She has absorbed a traditional grounding by studying at the Aligharh University where she graduated in Science in 1958. Then, she has drunk the avante-garde potion by working at the prestigeous Atelier 17 in Paris. After studying with S.W. Hayter in France, she returned to her roots in India (1968) and started a printmaking workshop in New Delhi.
Zarina's contract with Western artists, and her dedication to the feminist movement in the subcontinent, awakened her to the pressing need of national self-identity through the pastoral arts. She sincerely believes that for true expression, as far as historical individuality is concerned, nations of the East must look to ancient masters, and to ancient moulds of expression. The medium that she specialises in is paper, both as pulp in sculptures and as an organic background to her geometric designed etchings.
As Zarina says: "Art must truly reflect a country's inherent culture. Genuine art forms cannot evolve from mere shoddy imitations. We have no reference for oil paintings and still we continue to teach this medium in most art schools of both India and Pakistan. When one has no access to original, Western oil masterpieces, and one has to learn from photographs in art books, the purpose of imitation is defeated. We have an art history of beautiful miniatures to study from but we neglect them. We harp after Western standards of 'light' and 'perspective' in our works, when there is no concept of perspective, no shadow and no source of light in our ancient works. Doing something just because the West- does it, is pointless, and prevents. proper development of art," she said at a recent interview.
In her attempt at using national resources in her work, Zarina has turned to use hand-made paper from Sanganer in Rajasthan, India. During her stay in Delhi from 1968-1971, she encouraged the pressing of paper at her workshop and learnt to make traditional paper. In this manner she started a small revival for the medium, and practiced the Gandhian practice of self-sufficiency. As Gandhi, her idol, returned to the villages for strength, so Zarina returns to the villages to give them strength. By reawakening the slumbering arts, she aims to rediscover thousands of true artists hidden in the rural landscape.
Zarina laments the hypnotic fascination that our countrymen have for everything European. A national colouring is very much her favoured choice, and is, according to her, the best expression for a nation's growth. So, with this determined opinion Zarina goes back to use ethnic modes of art and she tries to preserve them by teaching about them in both universities within and outside India. She has lectured at Bennington College, Princeton University, the New York Feminist Art Institute and at present she is teaching printmaking at Cornell University in the United States.
Giving dignity, through monetary success, to all those silent artisans who form the varied background of our own national mural is her aim. To take a leaf from her page, would be for us to revive and revitalise our indigenous yet dying art techniques. The preservations, in a native and original state, of processes such as sand-colouring of fabric in Sind or 'Kalam Kari' of Hyderabad Deccan and the creation of a market for these arts is fundamental to aesthetic development. Bestowing honour, acclaim and financial sufficiency to our heritage is a must, she says.
In light of these dedications Zarina is having an art exhibition on Dec 28 at the Chawkandi Gallery in Karachi, and it would be a pleasant experience to read how Pakistani art critics view her work. From the feminist platform she has no critics as such; consciousness raising within and outside the movement is credit enough. Having already exhibited in countries as varied as Japan, Norway, the US, India and London, she has now brought her vast repertoire of expression to our city. Following this show she leaves for India where she is to have another individual show at the Art Heritage in New Delhi.

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