February 28 - October 15, 2024
From Public Art UHS:
“Public Art of the University of Houston System (Public Art UHS) presents Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life, a temporary multimedia exhibition by globally recognized artist Shahzia Sikander (American, b. Pakistan, 1969). Public Art UHS is an arts organization that enriches and serves multiple universities and instructional sites across the UH System and the greater Houston community with one of the most significant university-based art collections in the United States.
Featuring a monumental outdoor work by Sikander, the exhibition challenges traditional symbols of power, justice, and female representation. The installation was co-commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Public Art UHS and was first exhibited in Madison Square Park in New York. Following its 2023 debut, Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life officially opens at University of Houston with a public reception and artist talk on February 28 and will remain on view at Cullen Family Plaza through the end of October 2024.
“Public Art UHS is honored to present Shahzia Sikander’s Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life to University of Houston students and to the broader community,” says Rachel Mohl, executive director and chief curator of Public Art UHS. “By combining Central and South Asian artistic traditions with contemporary practice, Sikander creates innovative, allegorical forms that explore justice and female representation throughout history. As such, we hope that this pioneering exhibition fosters dialogue, inspires cultural exchange, and leaves a lasting impact on all who encounter it.”
“Through luminous allegorical female figures, Shahzia’s project asks who is historically represented and who wields power in the justice system, both symbolically and actually,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, artistic director and Martin Friedman Chief Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy. “Following its presentation in New York City, it is thrilling to see how Havah can bring new meaning and dialogue in its context on campus in Houston.”
The Houston presentation of Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life comprises two distinct works. At the heart of the exhibition stands Witness (2023), an 18-foot golden sculpture of a prodigious female figure that responds to the history of public monuments largely dedicated to Western men. Featuring arms and legs resembling intertwined tree roots, she is literally ungrounded, floating and resisting permanence. Sikander states that the figure “can carry its roots wherever it goes” since she is part of a diaspora whose home is where she chooses. Her skirt mimics the stained-glass domed ceiling of the Manhattan Appellate Courthouse, located adjacent to the work’s original installation in Madison Square Park. Its lines resemble the longitudinal and latitudinal lines on a globe, a proclamation of the figure’s authority in the world. The skirt is also adorned with Arabic writing in mosaic stating “havah,” which means “air” or “atmosphere” in Urdu and “Eve” in Arabic and Hebrew. The figure, crowned with gold ram horns and lacking the blindfold seen in traditional feminine depictions of Justice, epitomizes female potency, exploring the complexities of identity and gender bias.
Disrupting more classic forms of public sculpture, the artist proclaims, “I have always had an affinity for the anti-monument within my practice.” The corresponding work, Reckoning (2020), is a video animation illustrating a graceful dance between entangled warriors—both in accord and in conflict—within a continuously changing landscape. With colorful, airy animation, Sikander imparts a lesson in respectful dialogue, emphasizing the timelessness of all matter and the prevailing essence of Mother Nature. The four-minute video features music by composer Du Yun and will be projected adjacent to Witness at the University of Houston’s Cullen Family Plaza.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Sikander is internationally renowned for her multimedia practice that examines contested histories of colonialism, feminism, structures of power, language, and migration. The UH presentation of Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life marks Sikander’s return to Houston, where she served as a fellow of the Glassell School of Art’s Core Residency Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in the mid-1990s. In 2022, the MFAH mounted Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities, which brought together nearly 60 of Sikander’s works from public and private collections.
EXHIBITION CREDITS AND SPONSORS
Shahzia Sikander’s **Havah…to Breathe, Air, Life** was co-commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Public Art of University of Houston System and was first exhibited in Madison Square Park.
The Houston presentation of the exhibition is generously supported by The Brown Foundation, Inc. and the Madison Charitable Foundation Inc.”
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