Lot 72: FARIDA BATOOL

B. 1970 LINE OF CONTROL Lenticular print Edition 3 of 7 91.5 by 61 cm. (36 by 24 in.) Executed in 2004

Acquired from the artist

Farida Batool, as a student of critical studies, comparative literature, film and art history at Beaconhouse University in Lahore, subsequently became one of the pioneers of New Media art in Pakistan during the last decade. Using the process of lenticular printing, a form of photography where lenses are used to produce printed images that have a three-dimensional illusion of depth as well as the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles, Batool uses this dynamic form of photography to engage the viewer in metaphysical, political and cultural dialogues. In the current work, which is an ironic play on words, Line of Control, typically references the geopolitical boundaries between India and Pakistan in the disputed region of Kashmir. Batool creates a subversive metaphor for the power dynamics between male and female by using the imagery of two nude bodies in close contact whereby flesh becomes presented as land masses and the divide between male and female is forever shifting. The work also further serves as a metaphor for the political undercurrents with respect to the border between two countries, India and Pakistan, that share deep and complicated cultural histories. Line of Control is one of Batool’s best-known works that has been exhibited and published in multiple venues internationally. A version of this series has been exhibited in New Delhi at the Devi Foundation exhibition, Resemble Reassemble in February 2010.