Shahzia Sikander, Pleasure Pillars, 2001
Shahzia Sikander was born in Pakistan and specializes in India and Persian miniature painting. She blends the Eastern traditional painting methods with the Western contemporary elements such as self expression and abstraction.
Sikander had gone to art school in Pakistan where the students sat on sheets with their shoes outside working on small paper, very precise, methodical and minimum. Recurring themes in Sikander’s work is the mixing of the Hindu and Muslim iconography and veiling and unveiling. For example, in one piece titled “Hood's Red Rider #1” Sikander takes a Hindu goddess with multiple arms and puts a veil over her which is identified as a Muslim article of clothing
Her works somewhat reflects the teaching she had received in Pakistan; they are precise with clean lines, miniature sized but with complex subject matter. Sikander often paints human forms, mostly women, in a stylized form. They are wearing traditional indian garments. She tweaks this traditional style of painting and adds abstraction, in which she can just give you an idea or shape of a human form. She paints patterns like circles or wavy lines resembling Arabic writing or just shapes that convey a sense of movement.
I can feel the spirituality behind Sikander’s works. I was caught up in the many fine details in her paintings which are charged with meaning. I learned that miniature artwork may take years and years to complete despite it’s size. She comes from a place where Westerners believe where women are suppressed, however it did not hold true to her or in her family where all her sisters had come out successful, supported by their mother and father
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Shahzia Sikander, Fleshy Weapons, 1997
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