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her most idyllic years, now commemorated in etchings of rare aesthetic beauty. Returning to her roots, Zarina uses traditional, familiar motifs and symbols to convey the charmed aura of a world that no longer exists, but is nevertheless an integral fibre of the artist's being. Accompanying the text At night I go to the house in Aligarh, is a motif symbolising home--a suggestion of a courtyard and arches frequently to be found in the artist's work. A traditional design often seen on block prints and pottery--that of an elongated bud resembling a fish--represents Ami waits for the motia blossom. [[image]] Ammi waits for the motia blossom Elements of nature are included in the arist's idiom, echoing the time-honoured Islamic custom of creating beauty in ancient gardens and features of architecture. The homely warmth of the message Abba comes in to look at us is portrayed by the folk instrument whose sounds alerts little children to the arrival of performing animals, the small drum known as the dug-duggie, while for a cherished elder sister, Rani asks me to sing a song reflects the image of a dhole. A design of heaped coiled loops recalls a miniture painting of mischievious Krishna, resting on a pile of writhing snakes. Zarina was reminded of the painting while passing a building site in Karachi, where piles of curving pipes had been heaped ten feet high. It is a concept the artist plans to develop in other mediums. Subtle nuances of graphite ink are printed on heavy, white French moulded paper. In contrast, the final print is of a glowing rose coloured image. Conveying the theme At night we all come to the house at Aligarh, the artist has expanded a fragment of the courtyard motif. The colour is allegoric, mirroring the idiom of Islamic manuscripts, usually inscribed in black and gold lettering, the full stops in bright red. To the viewer it also suggests a warm and beating heart. Favouring the 'chincolle' method while printing--using acid-free glue to fix the handmade, tissue-fine yet strong paper over the moulded paper--for this portfolio, Zarina has limited her use of choice Bhutanese paper to the hand-set printed text. Deeply etching the zinc plates with strong acids, during the printing process the artist covers her plate with ink, creating varying textures which are then scraped off with a metal tool. Traces of the erased images remain, as the artist believes memories are never entirely scraped. Each mark the artist makes is a working process, every gesture to be seen. All stages of the artwork are visible, from the first to final layer, formulating prints of uncommon richness. involved in the analysis of a simple geometric vocabulary in the mediums she employs, Zarina brilliantly reaches conclusions that overcome the constraints of the medium. As an art critic of the New Yorker Lisa Liebmann wrote of Zarina: "Her metaphors, generally architecture and nature, are always interchangeable in the homely shapes, mineral hues and hints of splendour in which we find them. With their cultivated lack of finish, and their suggestion of porousness, of materials breathing which only an esthetic of humbleness will allow, her pieces are open to any myth of creation as they are to the poetics of decay." [[image]] Saeeda brings the children [[image]] Aslam tells a story [[image]] Abba comes in to look at us Elements of nature are included in the artist's idiom, echoing the time-honoured Islamic custom of creating beauty in ancient gardens and features of architecture. The homely warmth of the message 'Abba comes in to look at us' is portrayed by the folk instrument whose sound alerts little children to the arrival of performing animals, the small drum known as the 'dug-duggie'. The Herald, September 1990 155
