TitleThe Last Post
Artist
Shahzia Sikander
(Pakistani-American, b. 1969)
Date2010
MediumHigh definition video animation
DimensionsRun time: 10 minutes
Edition3/8
SignedSigned on disk, in sharpie, recto
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, May 9, 2012
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, © 2010 Shahzia Sikander and DMA
Object number2012.76
Label TextThe Last Post is a nonlinear narrative animation, richly layered with imagery that draws on the colonial history of South Asia and the British opium trade with China. Open-ended in its storyline, Sikander’s video synthesizes her miniature drawings into dazzling and fantastic views of landscapes and architectural forms that allude to the hallucinogenic effects of opium, interwoven with figures including a protagonist who appears as a red-coated official, suggestive of both the mercantilist policies that led to the Opium Wars with China and the cultural authority of the Company school of miniature painting has had over colonial India. The work’s scope and complexity is expanded further by its sound element, which was created by Du Yun, an artist and composer based in New York City. In a 2013 interview with Art21, Sikander articulated her interest in “taking a form, breaking it, and then rebuilding it. It is about transformation for me, whether it’s the transformation of an image, or a mark, or a symbol. Or if it’s the transformation of a genre…or a medium,” (as transcribed from Shahzia Sikander: "The Last Post" | Art21 "Extended Play,” January 25, 2013).
