Buoyant fragmentation 1999
Ink, gouache, synthetic polymer paint on tissue
Dimensions variable
Collection: The artist

Cycles and transitions 1995
Vegetable colour, dry pigment, tea wash on hand-prepared wasli paper
9 x 16" (approx.)
Collection: Dr Alton Steiner & Mrs Emily Steiner, USA

A kind of slight and pleasing dislocation #2 1997
Vegetable colour, dry pigment, tea wash on hand-prepared wasli paper
15 x 13" (approx.)
Collection: Ms Annie Philbin, USA

Untitled 1993-95
Vegetable colour, dry pigment, tea wash on hand-prepared wasli paper
11 3/8 x 8 1/8" (approx.)
Collection: Ms Meg Savage, USA

Untitled 1993-95
Vegetable colour, dry pigment, tea wash on hand-prepared wasli paper
11 3/8 x 8 1/8" (approx.)
Collection: Ms Meg Savage, USA

Shahzia Sikander trained as a miniature painter at the National College of Art in Lahore. She says: ‘I have been experimenting with the highly stylized and image-oriented genre of Indian and Persian schools of manuscript painting. The appeal of miniature painting was that it embodied both the past and the present. Never embracing it as "traditional", I was interested in the play with tradition and in using this technique-oriented genre as a platform for experimentation and subversion.’ Sikander’s practice extends the traditions of miniature painting, developing this intricate style of painting to encompass working in large scale wall works. The artist says: ‘The shift in scale, from the miniatures to the murals also breaks the preciousness of the small paintings rendering the wall works confrontational and ephemeral.’

Artist's statement:

I have been experimenting with the highly stylized and image oriented genre of Indian and Persian schools of manuscript painting. The appeal of miniature painting was that it embodied both the past and the present. Never embracing it as 'traditional,' I was interested in the play with tradition and in using this technique oriented genre as a platform for experimentation and subversion.

My focus has always been to create a vocabulary that is neither personal nor cultural but somewhere between both. Images abstracted from memory are recorded on transparent sheets of tissue. The vocabulary established here is then subjected to the densely structured space of miniature painting, where it is accessorized with detail and definition and an ongoing narrative. I am interested in issues that relate to the hybridity of the human experience. Identity is fluid, always in flux, and meaning constantly being reconstructed. Using costume (such as the veil) I have also done performances to record people's reactions and one's own understanding of clothing as a powerful vehicle of manipulation.

My work is both on paper and drawn directly on architectural surfaces. The shift in scale, from the miniatures to the murals also breaks the preciousness of the small paintings rendering the wall works confrontational and ephemeral. The dichotomy of both the experiences allows me to explore and push the boundaries of drawing resulting in the 'in-between' zone where issues about space and time are also constantly redefined. Boundaries are blurred and the minimal abstract nature of a Muslim aesthetic is contrasted with the expressionistic, sensual, sexual elements of Indian painting. Such juxtapositioning and mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography is a parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan especially in how history simplifies the visual in terms of both- a visual that I feel does not lend itself to simplistic dissection and separation.