Laila Tara H on contemporary Indo-Persian miniature painting
Laila Tara H. is a British-born Iranian artist, based between Tehran and London, specializes in contemporary Indo-Persian miniature painting. Raised across the world, she paints largely autobiographical reflections of a life navigating cultures. Having specialized in Persian and Indian Miniature painting during her Masters at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, her practice is rooted in traditional methods and materials.
Drawing inspiration from the rich history of miniature painting across Middle East and South Asia, symbolism seeps through her chosen imagery and into her means of making. All paints are handmade from (semi-precious) mineral, stone, or plant-derived pigments and the paper she uses is made of natural hemp, also handmade in Jaipur. Respect for the cultural and craft elements of traditional miniature painting are inherent to her practice, as an ode to nature and to the dense history that allows her to practice today. Big empty spaces, small intricately detailed additions, telling stories.
Laila shares the cultural context to her work
“Learning to paint miniatures was as familiar as it was foreign. I remember the first time I felt like the most honest way I’d ever painted, something so far from my previous academic training in oil paint on canvas. It was coming home and finally understanding that it’s infinitely wiser to paint tulips as the Turks and Persians did than the Dutch who imported and sold them as their own.
But just as it is like coming home, I recognize that my home is also a world apart from the historic miniatures I pine over. The work, rather than resembling them, resembles me — it’s not separate from my experience as a child who moved through Asia, Africa, and Europe alike or from my understanding of our global surroundings. As impossible as it is to ignore my own history, it is also impossible to ignore globalization, the environment, the politics that shape our lives — our collective cultures.
This goes beyond my imagery and into my means of making. I relish working on traditional handmade papers from India and Iran; there’s something special in the rejection of mass-produced materials in favour of traditional ones that are often also more sustainable. I only use pigments that come from earth, minerals, or plants and I turn them into workable paint myself. All of the materials I use could exist as extraordinary objects without my interference — this brings with it a lot of humility. Even though the work is rooted in who and how I am, the history and materials that shape it are ultimately spectacular with or without me.
Follow her works https://www.lailatarah.com/
