A meditation on power, legality and beauty 10 years in the making, ‘Lead White’ (2018) is an installation of photographs and textiles that explores the vast reaches of power. Evoking painterly concerns, the work’s title references the only pigment used to make white paint until the nineteenth century. From nearly 5,000 digital images, Bhimji selected just over a 100—adjusting for scale, colour, tone and composition—to draw attention to the ways in which gesture and traces of institutional ideology compound and unravel themselves in documents.

The photographs are printed on Kodak photographic paper, chosen for its matte surface and linen-like tone. Mounting lends stability to each image while also avoiding the stiffness of an aluminium back or the formality of a frame, which risks obstructing relations between the installation’s elements. Envisioned as a visual score, ‘Lead White’ is a crescendo of image and motion that builds through the repetition of words and the languages of force.

This work is on view in ‘Zarina Bhimji: Black Pocket’, a major solo exhibition curated by Director of Sharjah Art Foundation Hoor Al Qasimi, that runs until 10 April 2021 at Sharjah Art Foundation’s Al Mureijah Art Spaces. Commissioned by the Foundation, this work is now part of the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection. ​

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