Cultural Translation and the Diasporic Image: Bhabha's Third Space in Nusra Latif Qureshi's Miniature Practice

Abstract

Through the continual reworking of Mughal miniature painting within a diasporic frame‚ this article presents a study of how Nusra Latif Qureshi's visual art enacts Homi K․ Bhabha's Third Space in its cultural translation‚ ambivalence‚ and liminality․ Qureshi graduated from the NCA in Lahore before moving to Melbourne‚ Australia in 2001․ Across a three-decade career‚ Qureshi's work has brought the South Asian painterly heritage into sustained and unresolved contact with the colonial encounters with photography‚ the Western portrait tradition‚ and the authority of the Western museum․ The article draws upon the theories of Stuart Hall‚ Avtar Brah and James Clifford in combination with Bhabha's model․ It focuses on a close visual and contextual analysis of three works from accross Qureshi's oeuvre: Untitled (1995)‚ Did You Come Here to Find History? (2009)‚ and Museum of Lost Memories (2024)․ To summarize‚ this paper sheds light upon the point that Qureshi and her works over time reveal Qureshi's negotiation of hybridity and its development through an ever-expanding scale and institutional register․ More importantly‚ this article will argue that Qureshi's practice not only presents the Third Space but produces it‚ through a series of technical and curatorial decisions․ Such an analysis yields a more precise rendering of the critical operations of her work than has been provided by exhibition-based scholarship․