Shahzia Sikander’s work proceeds by superimpositions, both conceptual and physical: the artist creates bodies of works in which the relationship between the forms is developed and re-elaborated. The idea of representing the spheres is born from Parallax: six globes revolve, their movement is linked to a mathematical algorithm that responds to the reciting of six poems, and the speed either increases or slows down in relation to the human voice, the music, and the poetry. In The Singing Spheres this aspect of the work is replaced by gold leaf: by reflecting the light, the material offers the illusion of depth and movement; when the viewers move they transform what they see. The relationship between the spheres and the background is polyphonic in sentiment; the planes of representation, the center and the limit, remain independent and coincide. In Shahzia Sikander’s multivalent work elements come together and separate in infinite juxtapositions diversifying and broadening the viewer’s imaginary. From the beginning, the artist has integrated words extrapolated from poetry, stories, and narratives into her work. Each phrase or excerpt has its particular historical, cultural, political, and economic position, which contributes to the complexity of the work, often in unexpected ways. The artist grew up in Pakistan during the oppressive period of Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship and its institutionalization of religion for political purpose. Hindu references and beliefs were remote in the Islamic republic then despite the shared history with India prior to partition of 1947. Religious references, political motifs and cultural iconography is dismantled in Shahzia Sikander’s socially engaged work to upend stereo-types as well as gender-specific assumptions. Forms associated with femininity, masculinity, divinity, and ornament, intersect and associate with each other in a novel ways, transcending the symbology they are characterized by.