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Countries & Borders" of 2003) zeroed in on a number of cities which have recently witness programmatic violence against Muslim communities: Grozny, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Beirut, Jenin, Baghdad, Kabul and Ahmedabad. To the artist's credit, she does nothing to "Islamicize" the maps of these cities, allowing their borders, avenues and rivers to stand as innocent and mute records of the traumas that have been inflicted upon them. Again, the impact of her project comes from the cumulative effect of the successive images in the series, which gently guide the viewer toward an intended message.
Several individual prints were minimalistic abstractions, illustrating how accustomed we have become to the reductivist extremes of, say, a Barnett Newman or a Donald Judd, in the sense that we can now easily project emotive content onto such images. Horizon from 2001 simply bisects a horizontal length of handmade Nepalese paper, a word in Urdu floating delicately at its center. This word, ufuq, could be translated as "horizon" but also as "distant lands" or "far away countries." Dividing Line (2001) contours the fits and starts of a random north-south parameter, the terrain of hesitant cross-hatching remarkably similar on either side. Another print of only two vertical black bar holds in its margins the words "New York New York" translated into Urdu. throughout the works on view, Hashmi's touch is light, her focus steady, and the complexities of her personal allegiances rendered palpable. PETER NAGY

NEW YORK
Paradise Now? CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE PACIFIC 
Asia Society

Exhibitions of contemporary art from areas other than the familiar centers of Europe and America in the last 15 years or so-since, say the eye-opening Paris show "Magiciennes de la Terre"-have become more commonplace in those very centers well as in biennials around the world. "Paradise Now?" curated by Asia Society's curator of contemporary art Melissa Chiu, belongs to this cetegory of international conscious-raising, a complicated, problematical, and more than ever, necessary transaction between cultures. "Paradise Now?" showcased 17 artists from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Torres Strait Islands, Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and Niue, many of whom lie and work abroad, especially in Auckland, a thriving Pacific destination. The works, mostly from the last decade, many brand-new, had––in varying degrees––charm, humour, wit, beauty, sincerity and substan
identity, diaspora, environment, conflicted region
and its legacies.
What was lacking, however, was the impact of 
hybridization of traditional and contemporary me
intelligent and the subjects tough, the objects the
decorous, a variant of something we've all seen bef
show, a mixed bag, was informative and enjoyable
uncertain the terms of critical engagement. Some 
Kapahaka (2003) by Michael Parekowhai, a cadre of
seemingly larger––security guards(fiberglass casts
on duty at the entrance to the exhibition, are strong
Wilson, Duane Hanson and others. In combination
his father elegantly attired in evening dress as befit
a two-pronged comment on Maori status in New Ze
world (now co-opted as Hollywood's Middle Earth)
Hastings-McFall's contributions was Too Much Sush
over-sized starry leis made from little fish-shaped,
tally destructive soy sauce containers. Other "food"
some, almost to-scale gilded gold and red bull (1996
sculptures (2000) constructed from cut tins of meat
Tuffery. Denise Tiavouane's appealing The Modern D
to the subversion and loss of traditional art forms. H
grass skirted, ivy-crowned motorized bamboo poles
ing of indigenous music. Lisa Reihana's Native Portra
an ambitious video and photographic installation, wa
configured as a monumental gateway filled with sma
monitors each flashing a differently accoutered figur
tury Maori studio portraits, essentially a directory of
actual multiplicity of appearance and pursuits. In rey
Smith's striking photographic portraits of John Pule f
artist in the show, concentrated on one face, successf
and present in it, conflating cultures and mediums, s
stereotype. Historical Waikiki (2001-2004), a collaborati
Productions (Gaye Chan and Andrea Feeser, SEE INT
website that presented a virtual tour of Waikiki, and a 
Hawaii's history on its way to becoming a tourist mecc
panied by a modest installation of faux souvenirs (sma
of concrete purportedly from Waikiki resorts). Peter P
New Zealand from 1975 to the present and how it has 

[[image]]
Zarina Hashmi  Dividing Line  2001  Woodcut printed in black on Handmade Indian paper  17" X 12"  Edition: 20

[[image]] 
Michael Parekowhai. Poorman, Beggarman and Thief (Detail). 1994. Fiberglass mannequin with black tie, dinner suit and name tag. 178 x 49 x 39 cm. Collection of Saatchi & Saatchi
New Zealand