Page 16 - Art First: Partou Zia: Portraits Beyond Self

e road is dark, however, and though there is warmth and safety,
there is also precariousness. Equally, the whites in Fenced Horizons−
of the pages, on the woman’s face, in the background−seem drawn
to the bowl, dangerously perched on the table. is is a fully realized
extended world, not an idealized other-world.

It is a world of colour and joy and humour; but also of risk and endeav-
our and the unfamiliar. To go beyond self is no easy journey. Partou
had her books and her art to accompany her. We now also have hers.

PF

cat no. 8 Shadow Writing, 2005, oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cm