In conjunction with her presentation at Kavi Gupta, we spoke with artist Haya Zaidi about the historical foundations of her practice, the evolving language of Indo-Persian miniature painting, and the ways she reimagines inherited narratives through a contemporary feminist lens. Drawing upon mythology, literature, and centuries-old visual traditions, Zaidi constructs richly layered paintings that challenge conventional representations of women while expanding the possibilities of figuration, symbolism, and storytelling.
Throughout the conversation, Zaidi reflects on the formative influences behind her work, her use of found textiles and tea washes, and her ongoing exploration of narrative, mythology, and the relationship between text and image. Together, these ideas reveal a practice that is deeply informed by history while remaining firmly rooted in the present—one that reconsiders the visual languages of the past to imagine more expansive and self-determined forms of representation.
1: Your work engages with questions of identity, perception, and representation. What first drew you to these themes?
Haya Zaidi: My engagement with these themes began during my undergraduate studies in miniature painting at the National College of Arts, where I spent long periods studying Indo-Persian and Mughal manuscripts. I became increasingly aware of the stark contrast in how men and women were depicted. Men appeared powerful, individualized, and agentive, while women were often rendered as ornamental, archetypal figures shaped largely for the male gaze. Their presence felt aesthetic rather than substantive, as though they existed in relation to men rather than as fully realized subjects.
Recognizing this absence, I found myself searching for representations that reflected the psychological depth and complexity of real women—those I knew, those I came from, and those historically left unpictured. My practice emerged from a desire to reclaim and rework visual languages inherited from these traditions. By borrowing certain formal elements while loosening their constraints, I attempt to construct female figures that are fluid, self-possessed, and grounded in interiority rather than objectification. Through this process, I continue to explore how representation can move beyond inherited frameworks toward something more autonomous and authentic.
2: Can you tell us about the starting point for the works included in this presentation?
Haya Zaidi: The works in this presentation emerged from my ongoing engagement with ancient illustrated manuscripts, drawing from literary elements and archetypal narratives—particularly the recurring image of a heroic male figure slaying a beast to rescue a helpless woman. I became interested in destabilizing this inherited storyline by reimagining the relationship between the feminine subject and these mythological creatures.
Rather than positioning the beast as something to be conquered, I began to think of it as a metaphor for interior psychological states: fear, anxiety, desire, or emotional turbulence. In these paintings, women do not require saving. Instead, they confront, befriend, and sometimes coexist with these entities, suggesting a more symbiotic relationship with what is often cast as monstrous.
Formally, the work draws from the flattened spatial logic and stylization of Indo-Persian miniature painting while also engaging with the compositional clarity and visual language of Japanese ukiyo-e prints. By translating and reworking these historical elements within a contemporary framework, I seek to merge past and present while expanding the possibilities of Brown feminine representation. Ultimately, this body of work continues my broader inquiry into how inherited visual traditions can be reinterpreted to tell more complex, self-determined stories about women today.
3: Material plays an important role in your paintings. How do your choices of surface and medium shape the conceptual direction of your work?
Haya Zaidi: My material choices are deeply tied to my engagement with history, femininity, and inherited visual culture. I often work with found textiles sourced from local markets—fabrics that carry patterns seen across South Asian architecture, miniature paintings, and devotional spaces. The repetition of these motifs across time interests me, particularly their association with women, who continue to wear these culturally embedded surfaces on their bodies.
By incorporating these textiles into my paintings and integrating them seamlessly into the composition, they begin to function as both structure and symbol, forming the architectural ground of the work while acting as carriers of feminine presence. In this way, material becomes a fragment of lived history and identity rather than a purely aesthetic addition.
Alongside this, I use tea washes to anchor the paintings within an earthy tonal register reminiscent of traditional miniature techniques. While my palette often leans toward vivid contemporary color, these washes temper the surface, allowing the work to feel simultaneously rooted and current. The contrast between textured grounds and flat planes of color creates a tension between movement and stillness, depth and surface—qualities that mirror my broader interest in negotiating past and present. Through these material decisions, I approach tradition not as something fixed, but as a language that can be continually reworked to construct new forms of representation.
4: In what ways does this body of work build upon—or depart from—your earlier projects?
Haya Zaidi: This body of work builds upon my earlier projects by deepening my engagement with mythology, symbolism, and South Asian literary and poetic traditions. I continue to explore what it means to be a woman and to question the ways the feminine form is represented, particularly the curvaceous, ornamental depictions often catered to the male gaze.
In this series, I am pushing the boundaries of figurative painting by experimenting with more fluid and dynamic forms while breaking visual conventions. I am also exploring the balance of detail, scale, and color, combining traditional earthy miniature palettes with contemporary synthetic tones to create a dialogue between past and present.
Because my medium is rooted in miniature painting—which traditionally demands precision, rigidity, and carefully controlled flat color—I have been experimenting with introducing greater fluidity and movement. Tea washes enliven the backgrounds, allowing the compositions to feel more spontaneous and alive while still retaining the meticulousness and delicacy associated with miniature traditions. These formal and material experiments expand the possibilities of my practice, enabling me to create works that are grounded in tradition while remaining exploratory in expression.
5: What do you hope viewers experience when encountering these works?
Haya Zaidi: I hope the work invokes a sense of wonder and delight—the kind of awe and surprise one might feel as a child in a candy shop. In a contemporary art climate where this sense of wonder is often diminished, I want audiences to pause, engage, and allow themselves to be surprised by the unexpected.
I also hope viewers encounter Indo-Persian miniature painting in a new light, recognizing how historical traditions can take on contemporary forms. While techniques from Renaissance painting and other historical movements continue to inspire contemporary artists, Indo-Persian miniature painting is often either replicated in its historical form or overlooked altogether. Few artists actively experiment with the tradition or explore its contemporary possibilities.
Through my work, I aim to reimagine this visual language by combining historical techniques with contemporary approaches to create something that is both rooted in tradition and fully present today. Ultimately, I hope viewers reflect on women as individuals rather than objects, engage with the narratives embedded in each painting, and find themselves immersed in the symbolism, stories, and interplay between past and present.
6: Looking ahead, what ideas or directions are you currently exploring in your practice?
Haya Zaidi: I am currently exploring a range of ideas that build on both historical miniature traditions and contemporary concerns, with a particular focus on the representation of women and the relationship between narrative, text, and mythology.
One central reference in my practice is the concept of the Ashtanayika—a framework from Indo-Persian miniature painting that classifies eight archetypal states of a heroine in relation to her lover. Traditionally, these archetypes depict women preparing for a lover's arrival, distressed by separation, confident in their influence, or deceived and waiting alone. In my paintings, however, the men are entirely absent. By removing the male presence, these women become independent, engaged in their own moments, simply passing time, or existing in states of self-possession. In this way, I both reference and subvert historical archetypes while imagining new possibilities for the feminine form.
Alongside this, I have been experimenting with the integration of text and image. Drawing from the dense textuality present throughout South Asian and broader Asian visual culture—where scripts, inscriptions, and written forms often coexist with imagery—I am introducing subtle textual elements into my paintings. These range from fragments of literature to puns, syllables, and partial messages that interact with the visual composition. This exploration investigates the relationship between language and form and how textual and figurative elements can coexist within a single work.
I am also deeply interested in mythological references and the representation of internal emotional states. I use figures that are playful, angry, fearful, or enigmatic, merging them with human and contemporary forms to create spaces where beings from another realm interact with our own. Through these experiments, I continue to explore fluidity, narrative ambiguity, and the ways visual and textual storytelling can produce layered, immersive experiences. These directions extend my ongoing investigations into figuration, symbolism, and the reinterpretation of historical traditions while opening new ways of seeing, representing, and experiencing women, stories, and myth in a contemporary context.
