Shahzia Sikander's Animated Film on Maritime Sovereignty Projects at Hong Kong's M+ Museum

Artist Shahzia Sikander's new animated work, titled '3 to 12 Nautical Miles,' is being displayed on the digital exterior of the M+ museum in Hong Kong through June 21. The piece explores themes of territorial control, surveillance, and global commerce through the lens of shifting maritime boundaries. Historically, coastal sovereignty extended three nautical miles from shore, but technological and trade developments expanded this to twelve miles. Sikander uses this measurement as a metaphor for assertions of national power. The animation employs labor-intensive hand-drawn techniques, with numerous ink and gouache drawings scanned and layered to create cinematic sequences. Sikander's practice often examines authority structures, and she is recognized for reinterpreting South Asian miniature traditions with contemporary and historical references. The film uses the Opium Wars as a starting point to trace interconnected histories involving China, South Asia, and the British East India Company. These 19th-century conflicts weakened Chinese authority, leading to opium legalization, treaty port openings, and Hong Kong's cession to Britain. Visual motifs in the animation overlap to show the decline of the Mughal Empire under Akbar II and the Qing dynasty alongside the East India Company's rise. Poppies appear as symbols of opium's dual nature, referencing pleasure and addiction. One scene shows poppies overlaid on portraits including Lin Zexu, a Qing official who opposed British drug trade. A blue-and-white vase with poppies references Chinese and Islamic ceramics, while a Mughal throne fades in the background. Another image depicts Queen Victoria with pearl necklaces featuring maps of India and Hong Kong, illustrating how conquest becomes adornment. Sikander incorporates cartographic elements to signify dominion. Research at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum inspired contrasts between small Chinese boats and large British naval vessels in the animation, visually representing extractive systems. The M+ facade's waterfront location emphasizes maritime sovereignty themes, with Sikander noting Hong Kong as a territorial threshold where land meets sea and culture meets commerce.