Shahzia Sikander

When finding a definition for ruse the only devise that comes to my school principal is the reflectivity of virtuosos creative skill and supposition. The word imagination sticks out this thought of largeness and expressiveness to me and whence when conceive a large painting, adept immediately gets drawn towards it and tries to create a connection with the painting. Shahzia Sikander was an craftist who was known for her take over of miniaturist paintings in the Indo-Persian style.To m both(prenominal), miniature paintings construemed approximatelywhat constraining because of the space present for the artists to express themselves and atomic number 18 withal looked at as a faded genre that had more to do with craft and technique than genuine expression(Bhaha, Homi). But according to me, Sikanders art successfully poseed her thoughts and helped us attain knowledge about her enculturation.What attributes to making her paintings so acknowledged is the style her arti stry embodies not only her culture but also work cross agencys diverse ethnical references Hindu, Christian, Classical, mythological and folkloric (Rachel Kent). When talking about elements of level in artwork, I feel that matchless is referring to the way in which the picky artwork is faceed and the techniques that the artist has used to portray his/her skill and imagination. aftermath each of Sikanders artwork, the unmatchable element that is seen as having and do work on all her works of art is her cultural background.Her adoption of the miniaturist tradition took put up while she was studying at the home(a) College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan where this form of art was seen as an unconventional choice that conjured associations with imperialism on one hand and, on the other, profoundly rooted local traditions of fable- copulation and popular mythology (Rachel Kent). whizz of the reasons that it mat up worry story telling and popular mythology to me was because when viewing each painting, it felt uniform one was viewing a page from a book.The paintings looked flat give care a page but at the same time contained horizontal surfaces within which gave them prudence. unmatched particular artwork of hers that gives me this impression is makeup the indite (2000). In all her works and this one in particular one evoke see how she explored compositional constructs such as repeating, the placement of color across the surface of the work, the use of a flattened, zaftig perspective and the relationship in the midst of pattern and border (Rachel Kent). Repetition is seen a make do in compose the Written, whether it is the repetition of certain symbols of just design.The nearly level(p)tful factor to keep in mind when analyzing Sikanders artwork is the size of each piece. Each miniature painting is not more than 8 x 51/2 inches, which is just comparable analyzing a painting that has been printed on an A4 sized paper. Viewing a paintin g so tenuous can make us see the artist in a alone diverse light because as the audience, we atomic number 18 usually not used to be able to glance at a safe and sound painting at one time, and by this I mean that our eyeball are usually used to sorrowful around, moving to antithetic corners of the painting since we bring up the size of majority of paintings to being large.When viewing write the Written for the number one time, the starting signal thing that caught my eyes was the repetition of horses in the boarder. Since I am of Hindu religion, the whole painting felt like Sikander was trying to tell her audience a story about the Hindu culture. The horse is connect to the Hindu god Varuna that shows how Sikander is incorporating mythology in her artwork. Also, the focalize of this painting seems to be the two figures that are placed somewhat in the circle around of the painting, which to me represents the Hindu gods Krishna and Radha.Considering that this is a m iniature painting, it doesnt seem small or ingenuous in any way because at that place is so much going on in it. The blemishred circle in the center is what got me thinking because in the obligate Intimate Immensity, Rachel Kent mentioned, historically, the circle invited a range of associations. It is at once a complete unit, unbroken at any point so without a author or wipeout a spiritually changed symbol across cultures, associated with the continuity of the feeling cycle.But I felt like by using the circle to blur out the faces she was in some way referring to the problems that Muslim women have to face everyday. In an interview by Homi k Bhabha, Sikander mentions that even for her such things as the veil that she uses a lot in her work, remains exotic. She states that the first time that she put one in her work everyone reacted strongly. So when looking at the blurred faces in her painting I felt like she was trying to portray how Muslim women are forced to blot out the ir faces from the rest of the world. Images within images, borders within borders all form active constituents in Sikanders art of transformation(Rachel Kent). This technique of Sikanders is seen in a lot of her artworks in particular in Writing the Written where at ones first glance of the painting it seems like there are three different frames to it and this to me makes the painting look shapeed and gives it some form of depth. The outer near(prenominal) class is that of the border with the horses imprinted on it, the second bed consists of the two blurred figures and the third layer is that of the backdrop.The tiny blue circles that start of double on the outer most layer and then gradually become smaller as they move towards the inner most frame better represent this depth that Sikander is trying to portray. According to me it is quite trying to analyze every aspect of Sikanders paintings because there always seems to be so much going on. unrivalled of the reasons that I feel this way is also because of the way she represents movement in her paintings. In Writing the Written, the movement is solely depicted by the versatile horses.First, the way she draws them in different directions on the outer most border and then by the bingle house that is shown jumping on the illuminate left edge of the painting. At first, when I look at the title Writing the Written I didnt necessarily apprehend why she would give the painting that call in but then I started denounce the writing on the outer most border which seemed like Arabic to me. In an interview Sikander says, The text becomes more like horses or theres the proposition of movement, and that aspect is my experience of reading the al-Quran where I would read it with no particular perceiveing because I was a child.I could read Arabic, but I couldnt understand it and the remembering of it is this amazing visual memory where the beauty of written words supersedes everything else (Bhabha, Homi). One can see that Sikander used the Arabic words for the beauty of the language earlier than the meaning behind the words. Through these underage details we can see how Sikander incorporates different cultures her painting rather than being this handed-down artist that many consider her to be.Seeing that Sikanders artwork consisted of so many tralatitious figures and symbols, many considered her artwork as that of a traditional Muslim artist who I trying to portray the different between the eastern and West to her audience. But visual perception how she incorporated cultures such as Islamic, Arabic and Hindu in her painting Writing the Written, it seems like she is trying to bring together the difference between the East and the East, the nearest difference, the intimacy of difference that can exist within any culture (Rachel Kent).It took me a while to understand the complexness of her miniature paintings, but in the end I feel that they are as expressive and creative as any ot her large painting because of the add-on of intricate details and the incorporation of various cultures. Bibliography Bhabha, Homi. ESSAY THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY. SHAHZIA SIKANDER. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http//www. shahziasikander. com/essay03. hypertext mark-up language>. Rachel Kent, Intimate Immensity Shahzia Sikanders Multi-Dimensional Art, Shahzia Sikander, pp. 11-25.