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NAME OF PUBLICATION
 THE HINDU

PALCE OF PUBLICATION
 NEW DELHI

DATE OF PUBLICATION
 31 DEC 1999


[[TITLE]] 
Some innuendo, some fantasy

Through her ongoing exhibition Aumpam Aumpam Sud expands the potential of the etching plate.
GAYATRI SINHA
writes....

IMAGINE A walk on the beach, from one point to another and then a sudden erasure of the footsteps on the sand. Only the tangible points of entry and exit remain, but the journey becomes a point of delicious conjecture.

Anupam Sud thrives on the power of suggestion, the teasing power of innuendo. Her ongoing exhibition of prints on view at Art Heritage in New Delhi is further testimony of her skills at honing on the uncertain chiaroscuro of human emotions. The central position, as always, is accorded by her to the human figure, strong, athletic and sexual. Gender identity is often blurred in that both men and women are head shaven and athletic of limb, if not downright androgynous. Alone or in groups, they are caught in an ambient silence that is often deeply introspective. And in the grandeur of their form to the very human preoccupation of sleep, or contemplation in a darkened kitchen. Anupam introduces layers of suggestion. 
 The exhibition is remarkable for several reasons. At a time when worldwide printmaking is being overlooked as traditional - its potential reduced to one element in mixed media - Anupam celebrates and expands the potential of the etching plate. There are very large works in the show, for example, 'In search of Two Years From the Part through I and II class mail, 1977'. Here she uses images to describe' the rigid class structure in Britain during her long stint in the country. 'Red Chair' (1996), and 'Succession'(1996) are typical of her interest in dominance and the desire to control. 
 This has in fact been a thread in Anupam's work, whether the dominance is sexual ('Pick Up Girls'), medical exploitation ('Darling Get me a Baby Made') or her numerous works on the manipulation of patriarchal structures, which she defines through the recurring motif of the game. 
 'Dining with Ego', in which the man gorges and the woman looks on at the loaded dining table is one of the works in this series (Anupam becomes less interesting if she is easily read).
 However, one of the finest works is the series 'All Paths Lead the' in which nude males and androgynous figures are framed with seemingly little connection. Yet collectively they form a tense, suggestive inter-relationship. The dramatic evocativeness of these images beg for a narrative. It is to Anupam's credit that she grants the spectator the gift of fantasy.

Meditative journey

 The other extraordinary woman printmaker due to have an exhibition from January 14 at Galley Espace is Zarina Hashim Zarina. Living in the U.S, Zarina is coming to India with a show after a lapse of six years. The series of prints on 6" x 4" Nepali handmade paper in black ink are an extraordinarily lyrical experience. A vivid memory of life in her family home in Aligarh until the age of 21 inspire this extremely meditative journey of symbols and signs. From Agnes Martin to John Cage, the similarities with artists are numerous.
 Zarina however evolves a language of geometry and line that recalls architecture, yantric diagrams, music notation, even Japanese calligraphy to create her minimalist evocations.
 Through the first series that recalls the plan of her home and the delicate boundaries of a life lived in purdah she defines the gradual journey through memories of India, to her move to America. Though the recollection of her childhood home, Zarina gradually, through the series, comments of her homelessness.
 The success of the work lies on the manner in which it is pared down to the elemental abstract component. Thus 'Chaukhat' (threshold) is a horizontal half line across the page, suggestion both inferiority restriction and freedom. 'Loo', the hot summer wind, is evoked through the irregular rhythm of black lines. But these are only examples in an unfolding notational narrative. Zarina's work, with its dominant meditative quality commands both contemplation and silence.