Artist Shahzia Sikander ‘creates history’ in New York court. For over a century, the plinths above a New York courthouse held statues of men. Thanks to the work of a Pakistani-American artist, that is no longer the case.
An eight-foot female sculpture glistening in gold joins Zoroaster, Confucius, Moses, and six other male ancient jurists on the roof of Manhattan’s neoclassical edifice.
Shahzia Sikander, 53, produced the work to draw attention to the lack of female representation in public statutes in the United States, which tend to honor white men.
“Representation matters and women representation (matters) in spaces which have been fundamentally very patriarchal, like law and art,” the artist told AFP.
“So of course, placing the character on the roof of the courthouse, the context of the courthouse allows a very different conversation to take shape,” the 53-year-old added.
The building, in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, has boasted ten plinths since it opened in the late 19th century. In 1955, a statute of the Prophet Mohammed was removed from one following complaints from Pakistan, Indonesia, and Egypt.
Several statues were then shifted over one spot — but an empty plinth still remained.
Now, Sikander’s sculpture occupies the spot where the Byzantine emperor Justinian used to stand.
Her statute depicts a feminine figure emerging from a pink lotus flower, her hair braided into spiraling horns.
It calls to attention the discrimination women continue to face, “whether it is health and education rights, equal economic opportunities, gender-based violence, and race, or class discrimination,” Sikander says.
“Despite years of women’s struggle for legal, socio-economic, and political equality, gender bias still continues to create barriers for many women,” she wrote in her artist’s note about the work.
Artist Shahzia Sikander ‘creates history’ in New York court. Sikander, who was born in Lahore and relocated to the United States 30 years ago, titled the work “NOW,” a reference to recent events that opponents claim have undermined women’s rights.
When it overruled Roe v. Wade last June, the Supreme Court, which has skewed decisively to the right since Donald Trump’s election, effectively abolished the legal right to abortion.
The statue features the characteristic lace collar of liberal icon and progressive Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September 2020 at the age of 87.
“With Ginsburg’s death and the reversal of Roe, there was a setback to women’s constitutional progress,” said Sikander.
The temporary work is part of her exhibition “Havah… to breathe, air, life,” which features an 18-foot sculpture called “Witness” in nearby Madison Square Park.
The two works will be on display until June.
