Majestic miniature soaked in tradition, yet exuding contemporary concerns

In an interesting drop-in open studio program, Talha Rathore demonstrates the skillful techniques of sizzling South Asian miniature painting, right from preparation to gold leafing. She features in an interactive art program, AsiaAlive, courtesy the San Francisco-based Asian Art Museum (November 10–13).

Although traditionally trained, the artist's works are unmistakably contemporary in nature. Born in Pakistan, she was a winner of the UNESCO Bursary Award for studying at the Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India. She has widely exhibited in several museums and galleries around the world.

Her recent solo at Karachi-based Chawkandi Art Gallery featured a series of smallish gouache-on-wasli works, ‘My Heart Too Will Find Its Shore.’ It had images of paper boats, symbolizing the anxiety and uncertainty of living suspended between the US and Pakistan. Another series of gouache on wasli pieces ‘Sowing Seeds’ presented the contemporary miniature aesthetic at the exhibit.

In earthy tones of beige, ochre and rust, the work showed seeds, pods, microscopic bacteria etc in singular, dual, triple and even quadruple formations. Even though forming part of a cohesive series and contributing to the larger theme of what she termed the importance and beauty of life, each piece had its own uniqueness.

Belonging to a group of popular contemporary Pakistani miniaturists like Ayesha Khalid and Imran Qureshi, her focus is unicellular bacteria that she illustrates in delicate details, as if being watched under a microscope. Her work evolves from organic forms in the shape of trees, flowers, seeds, plants, and sometimes even bacteria and viruses that represent life, growth and constant change.

Her enchanting oeuvre is best described as meticulously detailed and fine: it converses with the viewer about evolution in life, nature and art in general. Each piece is an apt metaphor for reality around: a microcosm of hopes, fears and beliefs that we all share. As one may sum up, her works put life under the microscope, literally, in its minutest detail, in multi-faceted organic formations deftly delineated with scrupulous artistry.