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DAWN GALLERY Saturday, February 14, 2004 gallery@dawn.com [[right margin]]INTERVIEW[[/right margin]] Inspired by a line of poetry by Ghalib translated as 'These cities blotted into wilderness...', the renowned printmaker known in art circles simply as 'Zarina' commemorates the cities of Grozny, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Beirut, Jenin, Gabghdad, Kabul, Ahmedabad and New York in a serios of woodblock prints, writes Marjorie Husain Distinctive for the elimination of non-essentials and the sensitive handling of the medium, Zarina Hashmi's new work in progress examines themes of displacement, destruction and geography. Since it started in 2003, the series has been exhibited at the Gallery Lox, San Francisco, Chemould Gallery, Bombay, and at the Espace Gallery, Delhi. And now it is being displayed at Karachi's Chawkandi Art. It is the last lap of a journey that takes Zarina back to her studio in New York where she has lived since the '60s. A lively busy schedule, the artist who teaches her discipline at the New York University described her present life. "I am at a very good place in my life right now. As far as possible I've become a bit of a recluse and don't see too many people. [[image]] Telling 'home' truths [[image]] Time is so precious and I'm when working but in New York I visit museums and exhibitions, have some very good friends and have a weakness for the movies. My relaxation is to read. People can only live alone happily if they have inner resources and have little need of others; people take more energy than they give. I carry on a dialogue with myself and that ongoing conversation comes out in my work." A welcome visitor to Karachi, Zarina first exhibited her work here in '85 at the behest of Zahoorul Akhlaq, whom she met in New York. The response to Zarina's work was immediate. "Generally, people of the subcontinent respond to prints", said Zarina, "It is because of our connection with flat graphic surfaces and minature paintings." On a subsequent visit in '90, she exhibited a largely autobiographical series of etchings 'The House at Aligarh'. Each of teh artworks was dedicated to, and linked with memories of parents and siblings and described with brief but poignant eloquence: 'Rani Asks Me to Sing a Song'; 'Ami Waits for the Motia Blossoms'..., the abstract imagery rendered in a versatile linear expression demonstrated a subtle, consummate use of etching techniques. In essence the narrative referred to the starting point of a journey that was to take her through many countries and cultures. 'The House with Four Walls' followed in '91, a series alluding to childhood tales and superstitions; of ghosts, creepy snakes and the sound of an owl hooting at night. Zarina continued to explore the subject of 'home' from a transient viewpoint, defining the work in two or three-dimensional media for over a decade. Living and working in many different parts of the world, 'home' became an abstract concept, an inner space that accompanied the artist throughout her various journeys while she looked back at a world existing only in memory. Her journey with art as a companion began from Aligarh and led first to Bangkok as the young bride of a diplomat in 1958. In Bangkok she first discovered Japanese woodblock prints, and to explore the art, joined the Bangkok University Fine Arts department. The process of preparing wood, the involvement with paper and the manipulation of the media freed the artist within her and in Paris she joined Stanley William Hayter at 'Studio 17' where she practised various printmaking techniques. Zarina's aesthetic adventure continued in West Germany and in Japan where she learnt to make paper and experiment with paper pulp. As a student of the Aligarh University, Zarina had studied mathematics, a factor, she says, that has influenced her involvement with geometric forms; but her interest in art began when as a child she enjoyed the pic- Continued overleaf
