Monday, 4/10, 4:00-6:00pm, The Arabesque
Tuesday, 4/11, 4:00-6:00pm, Slowing Seeing
Wednesday, 4/12, 10:00-12:00pm, Ekphrasis
Thursday, 4/13, 4:00-6:00pm, The Gendered Body
Friday, 4/14, 4:00-6:00pm, Making South Asian American Art I
Saturday, 4/15 3:00-5:00pm, Making South Asian American Art II
Pakistani-American multi-media visual artist Shahzia Sikander collaborates with the Movement Lab, Theatre Department, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and South Asia Institute on this process-focused Media Movement Salon (MeMoSa) Series.
With a different focus each day, Shahzia will present her work in conjunction with student artists from Monday April 10th through Thursday April 13th. Shahzia then has invited fellow New York based South Asian artists to co-present their works in process on Friday and Saturday April 14th-15th. Contributing artists include Vijay Iyer, Aruna D’Souza, Chitra Ganesh, Priyanka Dasgupta, Anurima Banerji and Sa’dia Rehman.
MeMoSa Series will run from 4:00-6:00pm Monday (4/10), Tuesday (4/11), Thursday (4/13) and Friday (4/14), from 10:00am-12:00pm Wednesday (4/12), and from 3:00-5:00pm Saturday (4/15). Drop-ins are welcome!
- Monday, 4/10, 4:00-6:00pm: The Arabesque: focus on sound, movement and dance, with the possibility of the composer live-performing the score
- Tuesday, 4/11, 4:00-6:00pm: Slowing Seeing: with visual artists and art historians looking at various ways of seeing/entering into Shahzia's work, including from miniature paintings to digital work
- Wednesday, 4/12, 10:00-12:00pm: Ekphrasis: textual practices around Shahzia's work including calligraphy in Mughal painting, poetry, spoken word and modern practices around generating alt text
- Thursday, 4/13, 4:00-6:00pm: The Gendered Body: including questions of sexuality, the archive, and recording practices
- Friday, 4/14, 4:00-6:00pm: Making South Asian American Art I: New York South Asian artists share works-in-process
- Saturday, 4/15 3:00-5:00pm: Making South Asian American Art II: New York South Asian artists co-present works-in-process
Bio:
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1969, Shahzia Sikander took up the traditional practice of miniature painting during Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime, at a time when the medium was deeply unpopular among young artists. Sikander earned a B.F.A. in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she received rigorous training from master miniaturist Bashir Ahmad. She became the first woman to teach in the Miniature Painting Department at NCA, alongside Ahmad, and was the first artist from the department to challenge the medium’s technical and aesthetic framework. Sikander’s breakthrough work, The Scroll, 1989–90, received national critical acclaim in Pakistan, winning the prestigious Shakir Ali Award, the NCA’s highest merit award, and the Haji Sharif award for excellence in miniature painting, subsequently launching the medium into the forefront of NCA’s program, which brought international recognition to this medium within contemporary art practices. The artist moved to the United States to pursue an M.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 1995; from 1995 to 1997, she participated in the CORE Program of the Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.