Cosmopolitan Cartographies: Art in a Divided World

Abstract

I went on a journey, the first piece I saw by Zarina, is a bronze sculpture of a house on wheels. The work at once suggests mobility and the futility of motion. At first glance it indicates the easy mobility of a home on the road, but if the wheels on this house were to turn they would pull against each other. The motion suggested at best is interrupted and circular, never straying far from its point of origin, as though tethered. I could not decide if the piece holds mobility and stasis together in tension or in collaboration, whether its rootedness is a lifeline or a constraint. Its surface is roughened by hundreds of marks, ranging from light scratches to deep gouges. It is a heavy, solid piece. Lifting it requires a surprising degree of effort. When I put it down a residue of gray patina (powder graphite) remained on my fingers and transferred to everything I touched.

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