 Pursuit Curve, 2004 film still, digital animation, color, sound Shahzia Sikander 51 Ways of Looking Brent Sikkema presents new and recent work by Shahzia Sikander, "51 Ways of Looking". "51 Ways" is an investigation of translation and its limitations. Using basic structural forms and framing devices - specifically the rectangle and the circle - as the premise, Sikander proposes an inherent continuity within a confined spatial order. The rectangle morphs into a floral border from which a form breaks free, leading into a new cycle of variations. The relationship created between the abyss (the black rectangle) and the arabesque (the border as the archetype) serves as a metaphor for binary oppositions, like the center and the margin, the minimal and the stylized. This continuous breakdown suggests a constant and endless flux. Throughout the path of such transformation, various symbols are distanced from their origins through line and gesture and unpredictable juxtapositions. Though the viewer may try to place the images, the drawings elude easy placement and demand engagement. The images don't stay fixed, but move and change, eluding narrative. The rhetoric remains suspended and the dialogue is open-ended. For Sikander the exploration of language in relation to formal symbols of mathematics and logic provides a touchstone for the drawings. Using humor, visual reasoning and a self-created methodology, Sikander playfully hints at the problems of representation. The title of her most recent animation, "Pursuit Curve" is a mathematical term that describes the path an object takes when chasing another object. Much of the imagery in "Pursuit Curve" is inspired by landscape and its connection to human history. A group of new color landscape drawings, which will also be exhibited, continue this theme. A catalog of the graphite drawings, "51 Ways of Looking" will be available. These graphite drawings were recently exhibited at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield CT. A new extensive catalog, published by the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College will also be available. Exhibition: March 19 - April 16, 2005 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat 10am - 6pm Brent Sikkema 530 W 22nd St USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone + 1 212 929 2262 Fax + 1 212 929 2340 Email gallery@brentsikkema.com www.brentsikkema.com |
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