Even if we seek the impossible, we can never imagine a tiger — a symbol of ferocity — as a crane, a bird that embodies joy in Greek traditions. Of Horses and Cranes, an early piece by Bhutanese artist Zimbiri, depicts a tiger cutting through air on all fours, as a horse onlooker trots far behind. Pigs can fly, but can tigers? We look harder and find the tiger flap a pair of wide white wings. Zimbiri shares that her piece was an attempt to document history: “It was conceived during Bhutan’s first election. One party had a crane as its insignia, and the other had a horse. Art is at once wielding power and beauty. Even in countries with acute censorship, artistic creations relentlessly record events in time.” She adds that she wanted to participate in that legacy with her horse-crane art. The piece juts out as the crane and horse wear the same tiger skin.

Her first exhibition was also the first solo one by any woman in her homeland. After that, Zimbiri has continued to revisit the subject of the tiger. In the ongoing display at Delhi’s Nature Morte gallery, available for viewing online, she explores a tiger’s energy within box-like constrictions. But why the title, Imaginary Lines? Zimbiri explains, “The series, although along the lines of my usual theme, navigates borders that we befriend in a civil set-up. We are put into boxes; for instance, every child in a classroom represents a type or a box. That fragmented idea of being may not limit us, but these are questions I pose to myself. Since we create demarcations in the physical world, demarcations that aren’t tactile, I call these lines imaginary.”