Hafsa Murtaza, Islamic Gardens: Cultural Encounters, 2025
Waterless lithograph and watercolour monoprint on Kozuke washi paper.
27 in x 37 in each
The reimagined Mughal garden of Anup Talao manifests the complicated, reciprocal, and cyclical nature of cultural encounters. The original garden features a central basin, a floating seating area, and no plants but relief sandstone floral motifs. The recognizable landscape becomes disorienting and imaginary with multiple perspectives and orientations. The paradoxical waterless and water-based printing techniques demonstrate cultural coexistence of differences through solidarity. The four-part print resembles the Islamic Persian four-part chahar bagh garden tradition, assimilated from pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism and imported to Mughal India. The imagery's circular motion reverses colonial linear trajectories, taking inspiration from circumambulation and Indigenous circular motifs.
