Quotes from Nemesis

Here are some quotes from a book called Shahzia Sikander: Nemesis. 

"I was invested in an objective approach from the start, and I was never seduced by the romanticism of the miniature. It started by my finding ways of stepping outside the tradition in order to create a dialogue with it."

"I had grown up thinking of (miniature painting) as kitsch. My limited exposure was primarily through work produced for tourist consumption. I found, and still find, the presentation and documentation of miniature painting to be very problematic...at this time I also started to explore language in relation to the formal symbols of mathematics and logic...All this started to resonate with post-structuralist theories, and i used that new information towards deconstructing the miniature."

"It is a given that nothing is whole. Everything has a contradiction embedded within it...It is not the act of dismantling but recognition of the fact that inherently nothing is solid or pure. I read French philosopher Jacques Derrida, and was influenced by his suggestion of binary oppositions as creators of hierarchy...My desire to question established hierarchies, such as purity and authenticity, was informed by applying the logic of deconstruction."

"The question that came to mind was always about the discourse outside the canon. What is cultural imperialism? What is essentialism? What was the representation of the other? Could representation exist outside of the binary oppositions? What could be the third space, the in-between space?...I began to see my identity as being fluid, something in flux."

"Well, there is no particular narrative in my work. It definitely does not present "my story" in an autobiographical sense...I often see myself as a cultural anthropologist. I find open-ended encounters and narratives compelling and perhaps seek to express that more than anything else. Symbols, icons, and images are not automatically about one thing or one way of reading. A crucial reading for me has been the underlying exploration of beauty...I am always exploring questions such as: does beauty move towards formalism? Is beauty trivial? When does it become perverse?"

"...layering is (my) medium because with every addition it alters perception, every time the process provides another way to look at the same thing. Although the many layers we are addressing here are not just process related. Conceptual layering is always the focus. It becomes a means of trapping all my various issues and ideas. It also can help strip away the baggage surrounding the work."

"Combining a non-traditional medium with a traditional genre allows me to build a relationship between present and past, space and dimension, narrative and time - all in service of destabilization...It is clearly a series of steps...The process of creation hence has a hierarchy surrounding the investment of labor..."

"The title SpiNN also alludes to powerful mass-media corporations and to the ways in which core information about a subject is often hidden behind layers of perception that can suggest multiple meanings. Perception is shaped and altered on a daily basis, and information is spun to show us what we want."

"My works are a combination of overlapping commentaries on lived experiences, art history and pop culture...Art for me is mostly experience...My role as an artist is not about being political, but to point at the shifting nature of such boundaries."

"My work has always been in response to my lived experience, providing me with a space of concern, or a space of expression...I am never interested in providing a conclusion."