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Pakistani-American visual artist Shahzia Sikander's new work, a gold statue made in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has sparked controversy online.
On January 17, the 54-year-old personality took to her Twitter handle to share a video of her new creation, Now 2023, displayed at the courthouse of the Appellate Division building in the Flatiron District in New York.
Fox News describes the statue as having "curling braids and tentacle-like arms rising from a lotus flower."
Now 2023 has been created to pay tribute to Ginsberg and her fight for abortion rights. It also features the late Supreme Court Justice's famed lace collar.
The golden statue stands alongside figures of popular lawmakers like Zoroaster, Confucius, and Moses.
All you need to know about Shahzia Sikander
Born in 1969, Shahzia Sikander is a native of Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the National College of Arts, Pakistan, in 1991 and subsequently became a lecturer in miniature painting at the school.
In 1993, Sikander moved to the United States to earn an MFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Two years later, in 1995, she participated in the Glassell School of Art’s CORE Program at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Although sketching still plays a significant role in Sikander's work, she has branched out into other mediums, such as video, and, since 2015, has also delved into glass mosaics.
Her work of art has been exhibited nationally and internationally at places like the Morgan Library and Museum in New York; Jesus College in Cambridge, United Kingdom; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Texas; the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island; the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, etc.
Sikander has previously served on the New York Mayoral Advisory Commission of City Art, Monuments, and Markers.
She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Asia Society Award for Significant Contribution to Contemporary Art, a Medal of Art by the U.S. Department of State, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006, and most recently, the Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize in 2022.
For her latest work, Now 2023, Sikander spoke to The New York Times about Ginsburg and why she was chosen for this tribute.
“She is a fierce woman and a form of resistance in a space that has historically been dominated by patriarchal representation.”
Describing the title Now, Sikander said she chose it because it was urgently required after the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022 and women's reproductive freedoms came under attack.
Why did Shahzia Sikander's new work create controversy?
As soon as the bronze Now 2023 was unveiled in New York, Twitterati was not happy with Sikander's new work. Several users bashed the new statue for being "hideous," "ugly," and even "Satanic," given it has horns and tentacles.
Others just asked it be "destroyed" rather than "removed" from the location it has been placed in.
As of writing, Shahzia Sikander has not responded to the controversy related to her new work.
