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72 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 73
Rashid Rana
/ Pakistan b.1968 /
Off shore accounts – II
2006 / Lambda print on paper mounted on composite board / Triptych: 199.4 x 124.4cm (each); 199.4 x 373.4cm
(overall), Triptych: 199.4 x 124.4cm (each, comp.); 199.4 x 373.4cm (comp., overall) / Acc. 2007.011a–c / Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern
Art Acquisitions Fund
Rashid Rana
Off shore accounts – II
2006
Rashid Rana’s photographs are composed of thousands of
pixel‑like images, which have included stills taken from popular
Indian cinema to details of Lahore’s urban environment. He
meticulously brings these together to create images of Indian
film stars and landscapes. His attention to detail is akin to
that found in South‑Asian miniature painting, which he studied
at the National School of Art in Lahore. Rana’s use of digital
photographic processes emphasises the contemporary nature
of his subject: the urban and increasingly media-saturated
landscapes of Lahore.
Off shore accounts – II
appears to depict a gentle sea studded
with flotsam but, on closer inspection, is made up of tiny images
of accumulated rubbish and historical paintings of sailing vessels.
Rana brings together these symbols — of European colonial trade
in South Asia and consumer debris, respectively — to underline
the destructive nexus of the two in contemporary Pakistan.
The title refers to wealth generated and held offshore, as well
as work done for Western businesses in South Asia for a fraction
of the cost.