A New Degree of Separation/Togetherness

Moving from Pakistan to New York in 1998, Talha Rathore's work reflects on issues of identity, displacement and womanhood. Rathore uses the traditional of the miniatures as a paradigm to express her feelings on life in one of the world's most cosmopolitan metropolises. In a A New Degree of Separation/Togetherness, Rathore depicts trees, referencing the iconography found in Indian court painting from Rajasthan. The trees serve as a metaphor for the transition from life to death made all the more personal by the loss of her father. Trees literally root this work as they transform into skyscrapers forming the topography of Manhattan. Rathore uses an actual subway map as the medium for her works. This use or urban cartography, a lexicon for contemporary living is juxtaposed with the classical tradition of miniature painting. "Rathore also conjures a visual vernacular of displacement and disconnection by upending the rituals of miniature making and tearing the pristine wasli, the paper ground meticulously, prepared with wheat paste and burnished to a glossy sheen for each painting." (K. Phillips, Gendering Detail: Exhibition of Contemporary Miniature Paintings, South Asian Gallery of Art, Toronto, May 2006, unpaginated)