Suneet Chopra, Art critic, writer.

An Art of Spaces in Motion, Landscapes of Emotion and Cultural Migrations.

To Understand Tazim Jaffer’s art one has to understand the Global Village. She travels with ease from the USA to Asia, Africa and Australia, imbibing the flavour of different ancient cultures in a modern situation. On the one hand, there is a specificity of process in her works, with elements drawn from different cultures coming together in a space determined by her that could be landscapes to a European eye, sacred sites to an Asian and dream time to tribal and aboriginal people.

From another angle they represent no more than an organization of colours, forms and textures in two-dimensional space coming together at a moment in time, a moment significant in the artist’s life that reaches out to the viewer as an interaction. And this interaction may transcend another sphere of activity as a transaction between a gallery owner and a collector.

Good art is that which is valid in each of these spheres. In Tazim’s work one sees elements of many different pasts strung together as the collective washing of mankind. One can see in the same work, fertility symbols of tribes jostling with scraps of saris, handspun or chiffons, challenging the surface of the paper with a spreading of diaphanous wings like trapped insects. But beyond these insects we are confronted with layers of pigment replaying ongoing histories whose beginnings are as obscure as their future. But there is a certainty about the presence of flowing lines and colours that simulate great movements like those of geographical phenomena like storms, floods and earthquakes.

Indeed, geography is central to her expression as is evident from her photographs of sand dunes and beaches whose immobile and minimal skin is full of barely visible undercurrents that make them human, for it is the human eye and the human hand that give them their final shape. So they are as much a reflection of the human spirit as they are of natural phenomena.

Indeed, it is this underpinning of the human essence that gives her works their emotional quality allowing the distinction of the inner and outer to melt in the process of creation. It is this element of creating a new form of life that gives her work its originality.

A new form of life is not easy to create; but Tazim is well-trained for the task. Not only has she trained as a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Youngstown State University in Ohio, USA; but has got a Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from Kent State University, also in Ohio. So we can see clearly why her works are deep-rooted and yet mobile both in time and space. True, they reflect her peripatetic existence across continents; but more than that, they reflect the way she weaves differences into harmonies that evoke the unity in diversity that characterizes our world today. In these works of hers one sees cultural migrations of visual elements that simulate the melting-pot of cultures the cities of the world are today.

So, for all the remoteness of the places she chooses to photograph and the exotic nature of the visual symbols she weaves together, her art is the metropolitan visual expression of the global village, which is not a village at all. That is why for all its complexity, people all over the world can relate to her works with ease and access worlds unknown to them with a sense of spontaneous familiarity that is uncanny.

Dr. Louis Zona.

Elements of Nature.

Glimmering, glistening, mint green waters in the pristine Axel Lake appear changed every year exposing the belly of the Cambrian Shield boulders in Ontario, where I travel every summer – an escape from urban life. The lake is the same, but my eyes and soul discover new perspectives. The vagaries of nature bring changes to every detail of the lake and the surroundings. The cast of the sun, the moon, the stars and occasional meteors in the endless sky remains the same but the performance changes every visit.

Similarly, I view the world thru my camera lenses and paint my canvases with compositions that define my presence in a moment of the evolution of time and aesthetic space. The meditative process of organizing various components of images gives me great awareness and satisfaction that is both liberating and spiritual.

Artists through time and from every culture have experienced the wonder and the mystery of the human creative process. Creativity remains for the artist, the greatest of gifts. To understand the success of the recent paintings of Tazim Jaffer is to understand her remarkable process of discovery and her ability to intuititively investigate visual and psychological possibilities. She has always been an explorer in the sense that her curiosity has taken her to distant lands and cultures looking with fresh eyes ,unbiased by Western traditions and approaches. She has spent a lifetime examining the nuances of the visual heritage of hundreds of cultures and sub-cultures and it is from this warehouse of ideas that her creative energy is nourished. It clearly is no secret as to why her painting does not tie to the tradition of most contemporary painting which has its roots either in the formalist concepts of Cezanne,the expressionism of Van Gogh or the conceptual leanings of Marcel Duchamp. No, Tazim Jaffer's work might be seen as " universalism" in that its derivation stems from no single origin but is an amalgam in the truist sense. I beleive that the value of this group of paintings by Tazim Jaffer is that the shapes, symbols, and yes even the textures and colors presented in such combinations are unique to our culture; and, the creative process that brings these elements together is equally original. Tazim Jaffer's extraordinary abilities as an artist are amplified by a lifetime of experiences and an ongoing examination and analysis of non-western cultures and the land upon which they exist. It is this the land and it's identifying characteristics that provides the inspiration to this particular body of work. Just as Picasso's early Cubism attempted to present what has been termed "simoultanaity"in which we are able to see all sides of a structure or body at once, Tazim Jaffer offers us a topographical view of aspects of the Earth's continents while providing as well, other vantage points. These include hints that her interests move well beyond geographical inspiration. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these works is that although she takes us on a journey that reveals her vast knowledge of these far-away geological wonders, what science is revealed is tempered by the humanity, the romance of her process that includes traces of her own cultural past with the inclusion of sari fabrics and decorative motifs. An important component of these works is the artist's clever and effective utilization of collage. They offer an autobiographical element into what is ostensibly purely abstract painting since the college material is drawn from personal items of clothing including pieces from saris and even ties belonging to her husband. These collage materials are sewn, glued to the surface and even adhered to the reverse of the canvas and viewed through shapes that have been cut out of the surface. The collage element of the work is an enriching feature of this series not only on a conceptual level but also on a formalistic one. The fabric, juxtaposed against the painted surfaces, serves to emphasize the abstract nature of this work and Tazim Jaffer's ability to manipulate line,shape,texture and color in visually remarkable ways. In the end the work is about visual appeal. Few artists are capable of combining the skill to effectively organize visual elements while being able to draw upon the vast visual references which Jaffer has accumulated over a lifetime of multicultural study and travel. I would not be going out on a limb to say that Tazim Jaffer is a singularly unique talent, a universalist, whose work must be seen. What we can gain from it is the realization that the world is indeed "flat" and that her art is a response not to nationalistic sub cultures but to a world culture.These works are every bit as pertinent to our post-modern world as Picasso's Cubism once was to the modern world of a century ago. And if one guages these works from the perspective of innovation and creative energy, the works are clearly a triumph.