 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 The second installment of SDMA's critically acclaimed Contemporary Links exhibition series featured the internationally renowned Pakistani-born artist Shahzia Sikander. Her installation in the Museum's upper rotunda, specially commissioned for this series, was based on a selection of South Asian paintings from SDMA's collection featured in Sultans and Sufis: Paintings from the Deccan. Sikander's dramatic and thought-provoking work included drawings, a site-specific composition for the central staircase window, and an installation composed of paintings on layers of tissue paper. While in college, Sikander studied traditional miniature painting and now uses her skills and experience to explode the genre's codes and techniques. Sikander, who lives and works in New York, often subverts stereotypes through personal interpretations of the images and narratives commonly found in the miniatures. Traditional subjects such as the court, the hunting scene, and the garden frame unlikely apparitions in her paintings, including portraits of modern people or acrobats. Whether juxtaposing Hindu and Muslim themes or highlighting women's physical strengths, the artist is keenly interested in how image and content flow into one another. View comparisons of works by Shahzia Sikander with the corresponding painting in Sultans and Sufis.
|
     |
