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Image

Illustrations of towers, planes, and wildlife spread across the page. From the upper center radiates a graphite web created by a spider. On the left is a dark, organic shape.
Illustrations of towers, planes, and wildlife spread across the page. From the upper center radiates a graphite web created by a spider. On the left is a dark, organic shape.
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  • Illustrations of towers, planes, and wildlife spread across the page. From the upper center radiates a graphite web created by a spider. On the left is a dark, organic shape.
  • Illustrations of towers, planes, and wildlife spread across the page. From the upper center radiates a graphite web created by a spider. On the left is a dark, organic shape.

Shahzia Sikander

Web

Description

Maker

Shahzia Sikander (Pakistani-American, b.1969), (RISD MFA 1995, Painting & Printmaking)

Title

Web

Year

2002

Medium

  • ink,
  • gouache,
  • graphite,
  • gravure,
  • inkjet outlines,
  • and tea on wasli paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • ink,
  • gouache,
  • graphite,
  • gravure,
  • inkjet outlines,
  • and tea on wasli paper

Materials

watercolor, tea, ink

Supports

  • Wasili paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 22.7 x 18.9 cm (8 15/16 x 7 7/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund

Object Number

2003.46

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities

Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities presents Shahzia Sikander’s powerful early work, created between 1987 and 2003, from South Asian, West Asian, and Western perspectives, illuminating new understandings for a wide audience.

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 9: Out of Line

  • Books

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Shahzia Sikander
Extraordinary Realities
Nov 12, 2021 – Jan 30, 2022

Label copy

The towers and aircraft in this painting call to mind the 9/11 attacks. The towers also suggest oil derricks, possible referencing the dependence of the United States on foreign oil, which was brought into question during President Bush’s impending invasion of Iraq. Heraldry links present-day policies to colonial-era exploitation. The dark purse-like form, a lingam casket, would have held an amulet, but as scholar Faisal Devji suggests, it “looks like grenades on a suicide belt.” The spider web refers to one that shielded the prophet Muhammad from persecutors as he hid in a cave. The lush landscape with animals both nurtured and preyed on-copied from a Mughal sheet in the collection of the Freer Gallery-is the foundation of this composition filled with references to protection and destruction.

The Primacy of Paper
Recent Works from the Collection
Jan 15, 2010 – Jun 20, 2010

Label copy

Shahzia Sikander’s works reflect the shifting nature of boundaries-geographical, cultural, and psychological-experienced by anyone who has left their country of origin to live in another. Combining the tradition of Indo-Persian miniatures with her own frequently expressive and abstract manner of painting, Sikander builds formal and metaphorical layers of meaning in Web. The abstracted purse, or box, itself implies a narrative, while the somewhat violent hunting scenes reference imagery in Persian miniature paintings. These figures are layered with a spider’s web and other references to contact or communication, such as planes and communication towers. The drawing seems to reference the instability of a post-9/11 world.

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This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Shahzia Sikander (Pakistani-American, b.1969)
Web, 2002
Ink, gouache, graphite, gravure, inkjet outlines, and tea on wasli paper
Sheet: 22.7 x 18.9 cm (8 15/16 x 7 7/16 inches)
Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund 2003.46

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We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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