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2007

Zarina Hashmi - The Early Years
Recently in Karachi for a brief visit, Zarina Hashmi brought along a portfolio of her latest work - a series of nine etchings. Collectively titled 'Homes I Made/A Life in Nine Lines',
[[Image]] the equisitely fine pieces were exhibited last month at the Queen Museum, New York, and reflected Zarina's efforts to create a home for herself in diverse countries and cultures.
During a time span of four decades, she experiences Bangkok, Delhi, Japan, Germany and New York. The succinct titles of the pieces ('First Hime', 'I Planted A Garden Of Roses From Aligarh', 'I Watched The Seine Flow By And Waited For Him To Come Home', 'A Room Of My Home', 'An Uncertain Time', 'A Room Of Four And A Half Tatami', 'Edge of Temporariness', 'A Horizontal Blue Line', 'Space To Hide Forever') trace Zarina's development as and artist and as a woman.
Zarina, who describes her work as basically geometric, is a sculpter and printmaker. For over three decades she has made her base in the States where she currently teaches printmaking at the Santa Cruz University. The one consistent element in her life during these years has been her studio in New York where she returns whenever possible. Indelibly etched in her memory is the first glimpse of the golden spires of the temples of Thailand. There, at the age of twenty-one, she made her first 'foreign home' with her dipLomat husband. Zarina dates her serious involvement with art from that period in Bangkok. A graduate of Aligarh University, up to that time she had done some painting and sketching but had practically no knowledge of prints and printmaking.
At an acquaintance's house, she saw her first Japanese woodcut print and was fascinated. Zarina, determined to explore woodcuts, joined an art school in Bangkok to learn the techniques from a Thai artists. She discovered that she related more to prints than painting, attributing this to her love of books, paper and the printed image. Travelling in Southeast Asia she studied the beauties of Angor Wat, fortunate to find temples recently opened to the public after a long closure.
In Delhi, she was asked to review a book written by S.W.Hayter, 'About Prints'. Zarina started to read the book and desperately wished to leave everything and work with Hayter in Paris. An exhibition of prints in Delhi by Khrishna Reddy, who had worked with Hayter, intensified Zarina's ambition. She could hardly believe her luck when informed by her husband of his next posting - Paris.
Zarina arrived in Paris in '62 where, she remembers, it was as if her fantasies had all come true. She called on Hayter at his Atelier 17 and without telling him of her lack of printmaking experience, convinced him to allow her to work at the Atelier. Hayter taught her not to paint with her wrist, but with her elbow, to stand up and just draw. He gave exercises of automatic drawings, in which parallel lines were joined. Zarina decided to forget everything she knew and learn what Hayter could teach her. At home, she positioned chemicals in the bathrooms so that she could act the hostess, while etching her plates.
As she became more immersed in her art, cracks appeared in her marriage. It was a painful period in her life and eventually the time came for choices to be made. In spite of the emotional turmoil, about this time she became interested in paper, wanting to learn the process and to experiment with paper pulp. Along in Delhi, she applied for a Japan Foundation Grant, and was awarded a two-week stint with an interpreter, to visit page-making centres in Japan. When the two weeks were up, Zarina stayed on. Without money, friends, or knowledge of the language, she remained in the country for one year. Initially staying in a Japanese tea ceremony room, with no one to speak to, there were days when she sang to hear her own voice. She was armed with a book about prints, written by a French priest, and acquaintance of Hayter. She found he was involved in writing a book on Japanese woodblocks and miraculously, he needed someone to make prints for the book. Zarina began yet another period of intensive work. Printing throughout the day, exploring traditional art methods, studying papermaking, snatching time to work on prints of her own, a year passed. Zarina began to rethink her existence. "I don't want to live like this, work all the time. I want to do my own work," she thought. News reached her that in America her work had been shown in two exhibitions in L.A. and elicited interest. It was time to move on.

[[Three images across the right margin]]
From top: 'Crawling House' by Zarina in 1994; 'House with many rooms'; Zarina at work at Santa Cruz University