Rasid Rana’s large sculptural work, Desperately SeekingParadise, presents an assortment of conceptual and visual perspectives, whichallow the work to tow the line between abstraction and representation. From oneside the piece seems to be a minimal abstract work, which mirrors only thespace around it from another we see embedded photographs of skyscrapers, andthe work resembles a glossy chunk taken from a high-rise building, whichreflects the virtual skyline around. The visual sequence comes to its heightwhen we realize that the images of high-rise buildings are created with thehelp of hundreds of tiny images of house from Lahore, artist’s hometown inPakistan. By containing both abstract and representational elements,Desperately Seeking Paradise comments on the boundaries of idealism as well asthe perceptual dissimilarities between illusion and reality.
(Text by Michael Hilsman from the essay "A Moment in Time: Fragmentation and Reformulation in the Work of Rashid Rana published by Chatterjee & Lal and Chemould Prescott Road)