Artist Shahzia Sikander on creating artworks that inspire discourse

At the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in Venice, visitors see light streaming through blue and gold stained glass windows, illuminating works ranging from textiles to paintings, drawings, sculptures, mosaics, miniature paintings and digital animation. This is Collective Behavior, Shahzia Sikander’s first major survey featuring over 30 artworks spanning three decades. A collateral exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale, Collective Behavior brings into conversation the themes and iconography she has employed and developed throughout her career. Curated by Ainsley M. Cameron and Emily Liebert, the exhibition is organised and presented by the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art. It is on view in Venice until October 20, 2024, after which the works will travel to Cincinnati and Cleveland, where an expanded version of the exhibition will be shown. In this conversation with STIR, Sikander discusses the retrospective, her artistic practice and its evolution, offering an in-depth look at some of her most important works.

Collective Behavior is organised thematically, in three sections. Point of Departure explores Sikander’s engagement with and disruption of South Asian and Persian traditions of manuscript illustrations; The Feminine Space showcases her work on gender and body politics while Negotiated Landscapes and Contested Histories charts Sikander’s responses to the history of colonialism and its contemporary reverberations. While her works are influenced by her experiences as a woman, a Muslim, an American immigrant and a Pakistani, they are sublimated into artworks animated by universal themes and concerns—reflections of the thoughts, fears, desires and behaviours of a collective rather than an individual.

The exhibition begins with one of her earliest works—The Scroll (1989-90)—created as part of her graduate thesis for her B.F.A at the National College of Arts (NCA) in her hometown of Lahore, where she would go on to teach. Her work in Islamic miniatures helped bring the traditional art form out of the realm of antiquity and depicted the lives of women in contemporary, everyday settings rather than illustrating historical or scientific texts.

For Sikander, Venice was the perfect place to debut Collective Behavior, for the “in-betweenness” the city exemplifies. “Human and water, citizen/migrant, visible/invisible, material/imaginary or even like the real and the mythic or power and powerlessness, all these states of the in-between, which I think are really fecund for me as well throughout my practice,” Sikander said, in conversation with STIR. The location of the Palazzo and Venice is also particularly significant as a centre of European power, culture, international trade and migration. In many of her artworks, Sikander seeks to highlight the oft-ignored influences of the Global South and Islamic traditions on European art, culture and history.

Sikander’s work has often been centred around female protagonists, the female body, or what she calls “the feminine spirit”, inspired by the women around her. Collective Behavior showcases NOW (2023), a sister sculpture of Witness (2023) at the University of Houston, which was controversially beheaded earlier in 2024 following protests by right-wing groups who termed it a “satanic anti-abortion idol”. In this interview, Sikander discusses her decision to leave the sculpture beheaded as a “historical living document” of violence against women.

Sikander has often created variations of her works in different mediums, exploring the effect this has on an idea’s reception, possibilities and limitations. The installation Witness, for example, was based on a mural she began in 2001 for a New York law firm, which she left unfinished after being asked to censor certain panels. Collective Behavior brings many of these works together, responding to tropes of gender, race and power.

'Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior' is on view at the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel from April 20 - October 20, 2024. Watch the full interview by clicking on the cover video.

The mandate of the 60th Venice Biennale, which aims to highlight under-represented artists and art histories, aligns with the STIR philosophy of challenging the status quo and presenting powerful perspectives. Explore our series on the Biennale, STIRring 'Everywhere' in Venice, which brings you a curated selection of the burgeoning creative activity in the historic city of Venice, in a range of textual and audiovisual formats.

(Video script by Harshali Pagare and body text by STIR intern Srishti Ojha)