Shahzia Sikander was featured in the April 20th issue of Newsweek Middle East in an article titled, "A Colonial Canvas: The Art of Shahzia Sikander."
The piece discusses Sikander's first major solo exhibition in Hong Kong, Apparatus of Power at The Asia Society Hong Kong, which includes the artist's edition of four etchings Portrait of the Artist, made in collaboration with Pace Prints. The artist reflects on Asia’s financial capital as the backdrop for this latest show saying, “Hong Kong encapsulates an erupting and evolving notion of identity and autonomy through the complex push and pull between its English history and relationship with mainland China," asking the question, “What is independence and authority exactly?”
An excerpt from the article reads:
Sikander creates worlds of evocative and disorienting images that remain open to reflection and interpretation. “The work validates what is essential to me. The ability to imagine the future. The ability to leap, to not conform, but to channel possibilities,” she tells Newsweek Middle East. In pushing the contours of what it means to be both a contemporary and a Muslim artist, Sikander also wants to question who tells a story and why they are granted that narrative power. In constantly pushing her own frame of references beyond the Islamic miniature, Hong Kong becomes a new participant in her creative journey.
Apparatus of Power will be on view through July 9, 2016.
