Shahzia Sikander
Land-escapes, 2004
Digital prints
West Wing, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Shahzia Sikander is a painter who works in the tradition of Indian miniature painting, using themes and images from Hindu and Islamic mythology to create delicate minimal landscapes. For the West Wing, Sikander has created a series of landscapes that are derived from details found in a few selected schools of Persian and Indian miniatures from both Hindu and Muslim cultures. Stylised and stripped of sentiment, the images are whimsical and buoyant and are intended to transport the viewer into imaginary worlds. The images use a reverse layering process – instead of building layer upon layer of information, Sikander removes them. She says, ’my aim is to create a dialogue with traditional form and to understand its relevance to contemporary expression. The works are a commentary on lived experiences, art history and pop culture, demonstrating that art can be a tool for transgression and questioning as well as for contemplation’.
Sikander was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1969 and educated at National College of Arts, Lahore and Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, USA.
The award winning Barts Heath Breast Care Centre is considered a pioneering example of public art commissioning in a healthcare setting. A series of site specific commissions from leading artists are integrated with the architecture, to produce moments of contemplation; creating spaces that positively encourage distraction and discussion.
The art programme was curated for Vital Arts by Theresa Bergne of Field Art Projects, and took as its starting point the feedback that visitors would rather be ‘anywhere, but here.’ To this end, the expression of landscape explored by all the art installed offers an element of ‘transportation,’ offering viewers the opportunity to think about being ‘somewhere else,’ if only in mind.
