Zarina Hashmi's main working medium is paper, which she employs in woodcuts, etchings, drawings, rubbings and casts made from paper pulp. Minimal yet rich in associations, her abstract compositions are inextricably linked to her life and to the themes of dispossession and exile that have marked it. The concept of home-whether personal, geographical, national, spiritual, or familial-resonates throughout Zarina's work. Appearing in different guises throughout her oeuvre, her distinctive line is the unifying element of her compositions, like an umbilical cord that ties her to this world regardless of where she is. This generously illustrated volume places Zarina's work within a tradition of the use and fabrication of paper on the Indian Subcontinent, while also examining the themes of dispossession and exile that are subtly yet poignantly raised by her art.

Author Biography

ALLEGRA PESENTI is Curator at the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is the author of Rachel Whiteread Drawings (DelMonico Books*Prestel).