OBS-ZAR-2026
Zarina — Beyond the Stars
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Structure as Measure
OBS-ZAR-2026
Systems of Clarity

Structure as Measure

Zarina — Beyond the Stars

Structure is often understood as a way of organizing form. In Zarina’s work, structure functions as a means of containment.

Across the exhibition, attention is regulated rather than directed. Works do not invite reading or narrative interpretation; they hold position. Spacing is deliberate. Scale remains restrained. Nothing advances toward emphasis. The room operates through measure before meaning asserts itself.

Line, shape, surface, and void function as equivalent instruments within this system. Whether drawn, carved, perforated, or blocked, each form enforces limitation. Grids compress space. Monochrome fields close it. Perforations and cutouts register absence without opening it. Movement is permitted only within fixed bounds.

Because the system is measured, variation does not accumulate. Repetition sustains continuity rather than development. The works feel intimate without becoming expressive, personal without disclosure. Memory does not appear as image or narrative; it is held through restriction.

What the exhibition sustains is memory as a structural condition. Measure becomes a form of shelter — containing loss, distance, and displacement without resolving them into representation.

How does structure hold memory without turning it into image?

Structure collapses into representation when it seeks description. In Zarina’s work, structure remains operative because it is governed by measure rather than depiction.

Rules restrict expansion. Repetition stabilizes form. Line, block, and void function not to illustrate experience, but to contain it. What persists is not an image of memory, but a condition in which memory remains present — held in structure rather than released through expression.

Image Credits
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1. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
2. Zarina, Hanging in There, 2000
3. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
4. Zarina, A Few Steps in the Land of Confucius, 2008
5. Zarina, Warehouse, 2015
6. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
7. Zarina, Pool II, 1980
8. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
9. Zarina, Shadow House VI, 2006
10. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
11. Zarina, Destroyed City, 2017
12. Zarina, Dividing Line, 2001
13. Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026
14. Zarina, Untitled, 2017

Cover: Installation view: Zarina, Beyond the Stars, Lurhring Augustine, Tribeca, 20026

All images © the artists and Luhring Augustine. 

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Artist Overview

In Dialogue