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Lot Essay
In the early 1970s, when several artists and critics in Delhi began to raise concerns and explore issues about what modern art in India was supposed to look like, Zarina turned to Indian crafts as a source of inspiration. While working in the minimalist style she had developed over the last decade, her exploration of materials was inspired by what was available to her in India. She remembers, “So I was working in a very minimalist style. And at that time, I was also beginning to work with Indian crafts, because I thought we had this wonderful resource in India of craftspeople [...] One should be dependent on what is available” (Artist statement, L. Liebmann ‘Zarina Hashmi, Visual Artist’, Artist & Influence, New York, 1991, p. 70).
Also influenced by a year-long stay in Japan, Zarina began working with handmade paper she found at Gandhi Ashram shops. As it was too thick to take the fine lines of a print, Zarina began to explore other methods of mark making, including perforating the paper and weaving threads through its layers. In this untitled work from 1975, Zarina creates a grid of perforated horizontal and vertical lines, each ending in a length of string left to hang beyond the paper’s surface like the unfinished ends of a length of fabric. Speaking about the importance of grids in her work, the artist noted, “I grew up in an old culture [...] I never thought of the grid as a modernist invention and therefore never felt the need to separate it from the spiritual realm. I became familiar with grids by experiencing architecture” (Artist statement, S. Poddar, ‘The Garden of Dark Roses’, Zarina: Paper Like Skin, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 166).
Also influenced by a year-long stay in Japan, Zarina began working with handmade paper she found at Gandhi Ashram shops. As it was too thick to take the fine lines of a print, Zarina began to explore other methods of mark making, including perforating the paper and weaving threads through its layers. In this untitled work from 1975, Zarina creates a grid of perforated horizontal and vertical lines, each ending in a length of string left to hang beyond the paper’s surface like the unfinished ends of a length of fabric. Speaking about the importance of grids in her work, the artist noted, “I grew up in an old culture [...] I never thought of the grid as a modernist invention and therefore never felt the need to separate it from the spiritual realm. I became familiar with grids by experiencing architecture” (Artist statement, S. Poddar, ‘The Garden of Dark Roses’, Zarina: Paper Like Skin, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 166).