Artwork Details

  • Artist Shahzia Sikander
  • Title The cypress is, despite its freedom, held captive by the garden
  • Date 2012
  • Medium 2 colour photographs
  • Dimensions 99 x 124.5 x 5 cm
  • Credit Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation
The cypress is, despite its freedom, held captive by the garden Image

Overview

Shahzia Sikander’s practice creates an interpretive and critical dialogue with the history and provenance of Indo-Persian miniature painting, while examining cultural and political boundaries as a space for discussion and intervention. These photographs show the Pakistani caretaker of a dilapidated cinema in the town of Khorfakkan, Sharjah. The building is his life, his love – his existence is intricately intertwined with it, and its imminent death will close a chapter in his life’s labour. In the photographs, one can see the caretaker watching the faded screen as Sikander projects her drawings upon it, transforming the space and bringing the cinema back to life.

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The cypress is, despite its freedom, held captive by the garden

Sikander, Shahzia

people

Shahzia Sikander’s practice creates an interpretive and critical dialogue with the history and provenance of Indo-Persian miniature painting.