Shahzia Sikander
Apparatus of Power, 1995
vegetable color, watercolor, dry pigment and tea water on wasli handmade paper
9 x 5 7/8 in
22.9 x 14.9 cm
22.9 x 14.9 cm
To make this seminal work, Shahzia Sikander used vegetable colors, watercolor and tea staining on wasli handmade paper - the materials and methodology of traditional Persian and Indian miniature painting....
To make this seminal work, Shahzia Sikander used vegetable colors, watercolor and tea staining on wasli handmade paper - the materials and methodology of traditional Persian and Indian miniature painting. However, while the media is familiar, Sikander's great skill is her ability to mimic orthodoxy, while undermining it.
The women in the painting are Gopis -- the devotees of Krishna -- a common subject in miniatures. But we're immediately signaled that the rules of miniature painting will be shattered when their bodies break outside the boundaries of the painted frame. And while the central figure in the painting -- the object of the Gopis' devotion -- should be the male deity Krishna, instead we find an unorthodox amalgam of motifs.
The floating central figure -- a female form without arms (a metaphor for feeling powerless), head (lacking a definable identity) or feet (not belonging to any single place) -- is a stand-in for the artist herself, who had recently moved from Pakistan to the United States. It is Sikander's most frequently used motif. The exaggeration of the hips and breasts, as well as ovarial forms emphasize the power of the feminine. In place of feet are intertwined roots. This goddess figure is rooted in, and gets power from, herself.
Her roots pass through a lotus -- a symbol of resilience, rebirth and awakening. Another lotus, with a superimposed pentacle (representing protection and authority) is in place of the figure's face. Then, most surprisingly, given its combination with the Hindu iconography of the Gopis, the figure is veiled in a burqa. Sikander had, in her youth, experimentally donned a burqa both to observe the reactions of people around her, and to disrupt the male gaze. In the case of our goddess, the burqa is white, not black. Rather than concealing her femininity, it highlights it. And, paradoxically, sprouts the wings of a (Christian) angel.
Along with the Gopis, the figure is surrounded by celestial bodies, (that, like the lotus, refer to cycles) and various derivations of the artist's iconic figure. These figures foreshadow motifs that Sikander has used over and over, notably in Maligned Monsters from 2000 and Monsters within Us, Monsters to Midgets and Dark Kingdom, all from 2001. They are avatars of the artist and symbols of her being "othered."
The iconography of the veil and the depiction of Gopis -- devoted serving women who lack agency -- speaks to established power dynamics and gender hierarchies. But here, it's the artist -- a shape-shifting, culture-crossing goddess who understands the power of history and insistently rejects and undermines it -- that is the titular Apparatus of Power.
Apparatus of Power was first exhibited in Shahzia Sikander’s solo show at Hosfelt Gallery in 1997. In 2016 she would use the title for solo exhibitions at the Asia Society, Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum
The women in the painting are Gopis -- the devotees of Krishna -- a common subject in miniatures. But we're immediately signaled that the rules of miniature painting will be shattered when their bodies break outside the boundaries of the painted frame. And while the central figure in the painting -- the object of the Gopis' devotion -- should be the male deity Krishna, instead we find an unorthodox amalgam of motifs.
The floating central figure -- a female form without arms (a metaphor for feeling powerless), head (lacking a definable identity) or feet (not belonging to any single place) -- is a stand-in for the artist herself, who had recently moved from Pakistan to the United States. It is Sikander's most frequently used motif. The exaggeration of the hips and breasts, as well as ovarial forms emphasize the power of the feminine. In place of feet are intertwined roots. This goddess figure is rooted in, and gets power from, herself.
Her roots pass through a lotus -- a symbol of resilience, rebirth and awakening. Another lotus, with a superimposed pentacle (representing protection and authority) is in place of the figure's face. Then, most surprisingly, given its combination with the Hindu iconography of the Gopis, the figure is veiled in a burqa. Sikander had, in her youth, experimentally donned a burqa both to observe the reactions of people around her, and to disrupt the male gaze. In the case of our goddess, the burqa is white, not black. Rather than concealing her femininity, it highlights it. And, paradoxically, sprouts the wings of a (Christian) angel.
Along with the Gopis, the figure is surrounded by celestial bodies, (that, like the lotus, refer to cycles) and various derivations of the artist's iconic figure. These figures foreshadow motifs that Sikander has used over and over, notably in Maligned Monsters from 2000 and Monsters within Us, Monsters to Midgets and Dark Kingdom, all from 2001. They are avatars of the artist and symbols of her being "othered."
The iconography of the veil and the depiction of Gopis -- devoted serving women who lack agency -- speaks to established power dynamics and gender hierarchies. But here, it's the artist -- a shape-shifting, culture-crossing goddess who understands the power of history and insistently rejects and undermines it -- that is the titular Apparatus of Power.
Apparatus of Power was first exhibited in Shahzia Sikander’s solo show at Hosfelt Gallery in 1997. In 2016 she would use the title for solo exhibitions at the Asia Society, Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum