HOME IS A FOREIGN PLACE

The Guild Art Gallery is pleased to announce opening of an exhibition of Zarina Hashmi’s woodcuts. The exhibition comprises of 30 woodcuts of a series titled ‘Home is a Foreign Place’ done in 1999.

For many years now Zarina has lived simultaneously in California and New York. Recently she has returned to visit Delhi and Aligarh – all places that are world apart from each other, yet all part of Zarina. Because of her life’s constant state of flux, she has explored the many metaphors of house and home through her art. She has raised questions concerning meaning, stability, endurance mobility and ephemeral nature of the concept of home.

The poignancy of the title ‘Home is a Foreign Place’ reflects the reality of a nomadic existence and the sense of loss in returning to a place that was once home but is no longer. For many of us who live in different worlds from whence we came, we know that there can be no return. The inevitability of our lives is that we travel onwards and memory of place acts as a reminder of identity. It is a dream that we will carry with us always.
 
Zarina has spoken of the importance of music and poetry in her art. Space is Zarina’s art acts as silence in musical compositions. It is the counterpart to the pause, providing time for reflection.  In her minimalist approach   her lines, both delicate and dense, form abstract compositions that reflect her reality. Poetry also enhances Zarina’s art, as does calligraphy, which has long been indication of intellectual and aesthetic achievement in the Islamic world. Beautifully penned, the poetry has an aesthetic beauty of its own. It is the words, the titles that Zarina has given to the works that conjure of magical other worlds in one’s mind evocating memories that lie buried in our psyche casting a spell of insight into the human condition. Spare minimal thoughts brushed with haiku brevity resonate with conflicted memories.

Zarina’s has studies printmaking in Toshi Yoshida studio, Japan, West Germany, India, S.W. Hayter, Atelier 17, Paris and St. Martin’s School of Art London. She has exhibited widely in New York, Pakistan, India, San Francisco and other places. Zarina’s works are in collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York, NGMA Delhi, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and many other important collections.