Shahzia Sikander
Vortex, 2016
Screened oil based paint and hand painted pigment
167 x 203.8 x 19.7 cm
65 3/4 x 80 1/4 x 7 3/4 in
65 3/4 x 80 1/4 x 7 3/4 in
Copyright The Artist
Shahzia Sikander’s manuscript works take as their subject the halls of Mughal architecture and subvert the space of courtly life. They reference the architectural setting Sikander explores in her previous...
Shahzia Sikander’s manuscript works take as their subject the halls of Mughal architecture and subvert the space of courtly life. They reference the architectural setting Sikander explores in her previous animations such as 'SpiNN '(2003) and 'The Last Post' (2010). As in these two animations, her manuscripts relate to the same genre of Mughal court representation, which focused on the depiction of the court in 16th/17th centuries and was central to much of the pictorial imagery associated with court memoires at the time. One of these epic stories is the Padshanama, in which court life is the subject par excellence, and the spaces of court life occupy a prominent role in the visual language of the manuscript.
The frame and framing devices are important components of Sikander's engagement with (and resistance to) the spatial boundaries of architecture. The balcony is usually a space for the king to sit; however, in this work the balcony is empty. The viewer is presented with a darkly coloured door in place of the king or authority figure, and as a result, a haunting sense of absence. This evacuation of royal figures and life itself leaves one with a sense of absence and emptiness.
As in her earlier series on manuscripts 'Motif as Transition', Sikander employs the format of the large-scale book, the medium by which miniature paintings where held together before they were torn apart and sold in the 19th century. Simultaneously employing painterly drips and a design-oriented working of forms, Sikander cuts up the space of the miniature as a spatial and optical device to bring everything to the surface. The drips are almost like a melting or breaking down of the space. In miniature painting, every square inch has the same amount of significance: the border and center are equally important. The painting can be entered from anywhere; there is no hierarchy of space.
The fence is a recurring trope in Sikander’s works. It first appears in her painting 'The Scroll' (1991). The red fence also appears in her recent work such as 'Endless Inventiveness’ (2010). In her drawing, 'A Spontaneous Response to a Difficult Situation’ (1993), Sikander employs a red line to signal a boundary, much in the way a red fence does. She is interested in the capacity of the red fence with a door open to serve as a metaphor for authority and challenging the authority of the past. The court signifies a level of authority, and many of the architectural components of this sphere have come to occupy loaded symbols in the history of the miniature. In the manuscripts 'Illusion as Motif', however, the fence is not red; Sikander subverts this practice by colouring other framing elements, such as the ceiling and architectural beams, red.
Symbolic authority is porous and constantly shifting over time. Sikander is interested in the process by which the spaces of authority break down over centuries or even within a few decades. In her manuscripts, the distancing of space and the simultaneous immediacy of images foregrounds the spaces associated typically with power. By taking away the human figures, the painterly drips appear as though they are disintegrating the surface, but the architectural skeleton remains.
The frame and framing devices are important components of Sikander's engagement with (and resistance to) the spatial boundaries of architecture. The balcony is usually a space for the king to sit; however, in this work the balcony is empty. The viewer is presented with a darkly coloured door in place of the king or authority figure, and as a result, a haunting sense of absence. This evacuation of royal figures and life itself leaves one with a sense of absence and emptiness.
As in her earlier series on manuscripts 'Motif as Transition', Sikander employs the format of the large-scale book, the medium by which miniature paintings where held together before they were torn apart and sold in the 19th century. Simultaneously employing painterly drips and a design-oriented working of forms, Sikander cuts up the space of the miniature as a spatial and optical device to bring everything to the surface. The drips are almost like a melting or breaking down of the space. In miniature painting, every square inch has the same amount of significance: the border and center are equally important. The painting can be entered from anywhere; there is no hierarchy of space.
The fence is a recurring trope in Sikander’s works. It first appears in her painting 'The Scroll' (1991). The red fence also appears in her recent work such as 'Endless Inventiveness’ (2010). In her drawing, 'A Spontaneous Response to a Difficult Situation’ (1993), Sikander employs a red line to signal a boundary, much in the way a red fence does. She is interested in the capacity of the red fence with a door open to serve as a metaphor for authority and challenging the authority of the past. The court signifies a level of authority, and many of the architectural components of this sphere have come to occupy loaded symbols in the history of the miniature. In the manuscripts 'Illusion as Motif', however, the fence is not red; Sikander subverts this practice by colouring other framing elements, such as the ceiling and architectural beams, red.
Symbolic authority is porous and constantly shifting over time. Sikander is interested in the process by which the spaces of authority break down over centuries or even within a few decades. In her manuscripts, the distancing of space and the simultaneous immediacy of images foregrounds the spaces associated typically with power. By taking away the human figures, the painterly drips appear as though they are disintegrating the surface, but the architectural skeleton remains.