Shahzia Sikander: Unbound
Can decolonisation entail forms of intimacy? In the search for an answer to this question, the exhibition Shahzia Sikander: Unbound focused on the earlier and more recent works of Pakistani-American artist (b. 1969).
Over the course of her career, Sikander has been a pioneer in the study of early modern archives of Islamic and South Asian manuscripts for her contemporary practice.
Given its legacy of colonialism, the United Kingdom holds some of the largest collections of the very manuscripts Sikander uncovers and deconstructs. The exhibition examined her innovations within manuscript techniques such as serialisation, cutting and pasting, and calligraphy. Sikander experiments with these practices in a range of media including drawing, painting, print, mosaic, animation, and, most recently, sculpture.
"The majority of the manuscripts and paintings that inspire my practice reside in British collections and I look forward to bringing my more recent works in conversation with those archives," said Sikander.
"I'm delighted to be able to show Shahzia Sikander's work at the West Court Gallery – particularly this year, when she'll be the subject of several significant museum exhibitions in the USA, it seems especially important to give audiences in the UK the chance to see it," said Dr Jessica Berenbeim, the West Court Gallery's Curator.
The exhibition featured the British debut and first outdoor installation of Promiscuous Intimacies (2020), a bronze sculpture juxtaposing European and Indian ideals of female beauty. Promiscuous Intimacies speaks to many urgent issues including race, class, history, sexuality, and gender. New paintings made by the artist in response to a seventeenth-century album of erotic Indian paintings in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum were also be on display.
Exhibition supporters and symposium
The exhibition was supported by the , the and the , London. It was curated by Dr Vivek Gupta, Postdoctoral Associate in Islamic Art, with the assistance of History of Art students.
It was accompanied by a scholarly symposium at °µÍø½ûÇø, open to the public between 11–12 February 2022.
