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Zarina Hashmi

“I do not feel at home anywhere, but the idea of home follows me everywhere”.

Zarina Hashmi was an Indian American artist and printmaker. She received a degree in mathematics and was fascinated by architecture which reflects in her use of geometry and structural purity in her thoughts. A strong influence of her identity can be witnessed in all her works. Use of visual elements from Islamic religious geometrical features are the primary concept behind her art. Amalgamating her religious identity with her sense of symmetry, Zarina had created a niche for herself in the world of art.

Her keen interest in Geography and city layouts is the crux behind her art practice. A lot of her works show aerial views of cities.

Zarina Hashmi’s work challenges familiar locations like ‘Country’ the ways in which they are bordered, delineated and trans versed, and feelings and memories that they evoke in us. Her minimalist prints use these locations to construct new geographies, imbibing them with fresh perspectives and new, universal meanings.

Despite the minimalist use of form -She rarely used colour, except in some of her sculptures of early prints. Her works evoke a strong sense of emotional response because of the refined tenderness of her aesthetic and the way she transforms simple materials into objects of timeless quality.

Zarina, who chooses to be referred to simply by her first name was a prominent figure is feminist circles of the New York art scene in the 1970s. During the 1980s, Zarina served as board member of the New York Feminist Art Institute and an instructor of papermaking workshops at the affiliated women’s center for learning. While on the editorial board of the feminist art journal heresies, she contributed to the ‘Third World Women’ issue.

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