Shahzia Sikander

Sikander studied at the National College of Arts Lahore in Pakistan, where she was taught the traditional discipline of Indo-Persian miniature painting. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1991. Sikander moved to the United States and attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), earning a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking in 1995.

Initially I explored the tension between illustration and fine art when I first encountered miniature painting in my late teens. Championing the formal aspects of the Indo-Persian miniature-painting genre has often been at the core of my practice. As an undergraduate student in Lahore, Sikander studied the techniques of Persian and Mughal Indo-Persian manuscript painting, often integrating traditional forms of Mughal (Islamic) and Rajput (Hindu) styles and culture. The traditional form of miniature painting requires equal measures of discipline, gesture and expression in order to execute a careful layering of color and detail. Compositionally, miniature paintings exhibit an extensive display of colorful imagery, including human forms, animals, patterns, shapes, dots and connecting lines. Miniature paintings often engage in contextual complexities such as religious narrative, scenes of battles and court life. Sikander has integrated the techniques and forms of traditional miniature painting, relying on the layering of images and metaphor to drive her work. Her forms and figures exhibit a quality of continual morphing as transparent imagery is layered, providing a complexity with endless shifts in perception. Sikander's complex compositions "dismantle hierarchical assumptions and subverts the very notion of a singular, fixed identity of figures and forms." The Scroll, 1992, is a semi-autobiographical manuscript painting. The Scroll Sikander's thesis project at the National College of Arts, includes formal elements of historical manuscript painting. The Scroll portrays scenes of everyday contemporary Pakistani life, including rituals that explore cultural and geographic traditions. Many hues, patterns and incidents appear in The Scroll, identifying Sikander's attention to small detail, muted color palettes, and understanding of architectural elements juxtaposed with the intimacies of domestic culture. The use of perspective is increasingly noticeable, exhibiting a linear movement of composition. Common concerns of economics, imperialism, colonialism, sexualism and identity are also apparent in Sikander's early paintings. The Scroll launched what has come to be called the neo-miniature. Sikander's attention to detail and formalism assist in the contextualization of her miniature paintings, stemming from an interest in labor, process and memory. Earlier paintings also include elements of Gopi, or the cowherd female devotees and lovers of the deity Krishna in Hindu mythology, while figures of men are depicted as "turbaned warriors." The Gopi is portrayed in Sikander's early miniature paintings to "locate visual and symbolic forms within miniature painting that have the potential to generate multiple meanings." Shahzia Sikander's most significant use of Gopi can be seen in a series of drawings and digital animation from 2003, titled Spinn. In the animation, the characters multiply and their hair separates from their bodies, creating an abstracted form of hair silhouettes. Sikander explores the relationship between the present and the past, including the richness of multicultural identities. Appropriations for Sikander function to move Indo-Persian artistic traditions into the future. The extraction and abstraction of traditional motifs create endless shifts in perception that challenge the linearity of any colonial or postcolonial narrative. Integrated with both personal and social histories, her work invites multiple meanings, operating in a state of constant flux and transition.

Drawing is a fundamental element of my process, a basic tool for exploration. I construct most of my work, including patterns of thinking, via drawing. Ideas housed on paper are often put into motion in the video animations, creating a form of disruption as a means to engage. I also stayed true to layering, a concept running throughout my practice. For the making of video animations, I went back to the fundamental use of ink drawings, crafting form out of color and gouache, scanning and threading them via movement. The breakdown of form also gives a stationary drawing the illusion of transformation, which as a topic has given me a lot of space to experiment and imagine throughout my work. Similarly to her miniature paintings, Sikander relies on the process of layering to create digital animation. Formal elements of technique, layering and movement of the digital animations help to unhinge the "absolute of contrasts such as Western/non-Western, past/present, miniature/scale." Sikander explains her appreciation for the process of layering in digital animation, allowing the narrative to remain suspended and open for reinterpretation. Sikander is very patient with her work, some taking months, even years to finish. Sikander states; "The purpose is to point out, and not necessarily define. I find this attitude a useful way to navigate the complex and often deeply rooted cultural and sociopolitical stances that envelop us twenty-four hours and day, seven days a week."

I think context, location matters a lot. Because location obviously in my situation, it's the space in which the work is going to be exhibited. And since some of the work I do is created onsite, it requires a different type of space, versus the smaller drawings or more subject-oriented work. So that the context becomes important. As a female Muslim artist, Shahzia Sikander often had to endure stereotyping among her community. The veil (a scarf often worn by Muslim women) covers the hair and neck and is symbolic of both religion and womanhood. Sikander's miniature paintings often refer to the veil, exploring her own religious history and cultural identity. In a performance piece, Sikander wore an elaborate lace veil for several weeks while documenting the reaction of her peers. Sikander explains that the veil gave her an ultimate sense of security, stating that, "It was wonderful to not have people see my facial or body language, and at the same time be in control and know that they did not know I was acting, and checking their reaction." Imagery of the traditional Muslim veil occur throughout Sikander's compositions. Her larger works are reminiscent of a centuries-old Indian practice in which women regularly paint figures all over the walls and floors of their houses, using "whole body" gestural movements. Sikander uses large drawings as the basis for her large-scale installations, often requiring months to complete. Nemesis, a site-specific installation at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, features a jewel-like paintings as small as six by eight inches and two animations. Sikander was commissioned to create two large public art pieces for Princeton University, which were revealed in 2017. One is Quintuplet Effect, a painting on layered glass which can be seen in the Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building. The other is Ecstasy as Sublime, Heart as Vector, a sixty-six-foot-tall mosaic in the Louis A. Simpson International Building. Sikander places a strong emphasis on feminist messaging in her artwork, often using it as an avenue to initiate discussions surrounding religion and politics. As a Muslim woman living in New York in the midst of the aftermath of 9/11, Sikander made note of the growing interest in Middle Eastern women and islam in the west through her art. In Pleasure Pillars, Sikander makes a clear reference to the destruction of the twin towers in 2001 as the women in the painting are depicted shooting beams and creating explosions. Throughout her portfolio, she depicts women with incomplete bodies and mythological features, such as horns. This can also be seen in her mural, The Perennial Gaze, in which the woman is embraced by a gold, androgynous, headless body. Sikander utilizes the human body to push the boundaries between what is praised as masculine and feminine, highlighting the sensual qualities of the female form and how it is often overshadowed. In 2023, Sikander was commissioned to create a statue for Madison Square in New York. In this installation, a statue of a golden armless floating woman with ram horns is held up by a skirt covered in a mosaic. This installation, “Havah....to breathe air, life,” received a mixture of praise and criticism from viewers as the United States continues to be in a legislative battle on women’s reproductive rights, specifically abortion rights. This sculpture is interpreted to be in conversation to female reproductive rights from the title. Havah has two meanings, in Urdu it translates to air or Eve. Coupled with the allusions of the woman’s body connected to nature, many viewers interpret the sculpture in relation to female reproduction as the female body is understood as the vessel of human life. In an interview Sikander refers to Eve as “the first law breaker,” though she shares no clear political affiliation or opinions on the topic in particular. Rather, Sikander created the sculpture to start a conversation and have the meaning reveal itself, as she explains she “thrive[es] on hearing what happens over time.” The sculpture, Witness, was later relocated to the University of Houston, where it drew criticism from the anti-abortion Christian group Texas Right to Life. Sikander stated that viewers may have "misread the symbolism behind her artwork, which includes hornlike braids, tentacle arms and a lace collar. Her intention was not specifically to comment on abortion or Supreme Court justices, but rather to create a broader message about a woman’s power in the justice system". In July 2024, the sculpture was vandalized and beheaded.