Shahzia Sikander's 'Ecstasy As Sublime, Heart As Vector' at MAXXI Rome

The MAXXI museum in Rome presents 'Ecstasy As Sublime, Heart As Vector', a solo exhibition of Pakistani-born, New York-based artist Shahzia Sikander, curated by Hou Hanru and Anne Palopoli, running until October 23, 2016. Sikander, born in Lahore in 1969, is known for expanding Indo-Persian miniature painting into contemporary multimedia works that challenge Western art and cultural narratives. The exhibition features works such as 'Parallax' (2013), a three-channel HD video animation with an original score by Du Yun, and 'SpiNN' (2003), a digital animation. Sikander's practice reexamines knowledge and history through interstitial spaces, fractures, and silences, as she described in an interview with art historian Fereshteh Daftari. The show includes pieces that integrate historical imagery with mundane elements, creating ambiguous, multi-layered narratives. A central theme is the Miraj, the Prophet Muhammad's night journey, which Sikander secularizes to explore the ineffable through poetic and symbolic means. The exhibition reflects her ongoing effort to recover and reimagine Pakistani visual traditions while questioning fixed identities and meanings.