Hafsa Murtaza, Islamic Garden: Water Innovations, 2025
Fabric marker, acrylic, gouache, embroidery floss, glass beads on cotton canvas.
9 in x 12 in
Islamic gardens embody sites of fluid cultural encounters, as manifested in the diversity of media in my paintings: acrylic, gouache, ink, fabric markers, embroidery, and beadwork overlap patterns with culturally specific symbols and architectural elements in conflicting perspectives. Although Western landscape traditions have landscape-oriented scenic views with linear perspective, elements in the paintings conform to non-Western traditions in which flat perspective, floral motifs, and quadrants on carpets, textiles, and stone-inlay wall patterns can all be landscapes. The combination of painting and embroidery amalgamates these different modes of cultural representation. In the work, a waterfall channels into a man-made waterfall-like fountain, a Mughal chador channelling water to a fountain in a four-part garden carpet.
