Desai Performance

This animation, commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, responds to a 1743 Indian manuscript in its collection, Gulshan-i Ishq (Rose garden of love). Written in 1657-1658 by the poet Nusrati, it expresses a Sufi Islamicate tale in an Indic vernacular, with the complicated journeys of several pairs of lovers providing a metaphor for spiritual quests. Sikander's visual poem with original score takes life's struggle for truth as its point of departure. Animated from drawings, Disruption as Rapture highlights the complicated relationship between history and storytelling. The collaborative spirit of this work's production is reflected in its many elements, including South Asian manuscript painting, motion graphics, Hindu and Muslim lyrical poetry, Western opera, orchestral music, Indian ragas, and Gregorian chants.

In The Last Post (2010), Shahzia Sikander critically considers the legacy of British colonialism in Asia, using her signature approach of infusing Indo-Persian miniature paintings with a contemporary perspective