Rashid Rana (Pakistani, B. 1963). "Re-ornamented I". 2004.
Digital C-Print on paper on board. Edition 8/10.
Incsribed: "8/10, Re-ornamented-1 36"x30" also on verso.
Unframed Dimensions: 36 in x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
Framed dimensions: 41.75 x 35.75 in.
The photograph is in excellent condition.

Internationally acclaimed Pakistani multi-media artist Rashid Rana has been creating brilliant videos and photographs that critique social and political issues for more than a decade, and is considered one of the most important photographers not only in South Asia, but world-wide. Rana’s works range in medium, but it is his photographs, such as this rare edition of the intimate and complex "Re-ornamented I", for which he is most critically acclaimed. Rana uses thousands of tiny photographic images of sexual, social, political issues and injustices in South Asia to re-create the composition of larger images, in this case the entrance to a religious temple. In Rana's photographs, as seen here, one is drawn into what appears from a distance to a straight-forward photograph of an elegantly arched entrance and hallway. It is not until one gets close-up to the image that the jarring reality of Rana's encoded themes and brilliant technique appear. The subject suddenly switches from that of the doorway to the multiple, varied thumbnails and one is caught up in trying to decipher these miniature images encoded as they are with intense thematic and visual information.

Rashid Rana's body of photographic work triggers contemplation about society’s views of beauty versus troubling reality, and how the two seemingly opposite subjects are in fact deeply intertwined. As Rana states... “In this age of uncertainty we have lost the privilege of having only one world view…Now, every image, idea and truth (may it be ancient of modern) encompasses its opposite within itself. Thus we live in a state of duality.”

The artist is represented by the top galleries including the elite Lisson Gallery, (London and Milan) and just exhibited another edition of 'Re-Ornamented I" at the Musée Guimet in Paris, and is the first Pakistani artist to ever exhibit at this prestigious venue. His work is in the Saatchi permanent collection, as well as major museums and top private collections, world-wide, with an edition of this photograph in the permanent collection of the Musée Guimet also in Paris, France.