Artwork Page for Touchstone

Details / Information for Touchstone

Touchstone

2021

Shahzia Sikander

(Pakistani American, b. 1969)
Culture
America
Medium
glass mosaic with patinated brass frame
Measurements
211.1 x 152.1 cm (83 1/8 x 59 7/8 in.); Framed: 213.5 x 154.6 x 5.1 cm (84 1/16 x 60 7/8 x 2 in.)
Weight: 216 lbs.
Credit Line
Dorothea Wright Hamilton Fund 2025.1
Edition
AP 1 from an edition of 5 with 2 APs
Copyright
© Shahzia Sikander, courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly, New York / Los Angeles
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Some of the pieces of glass in Touchstone are placed on their side and upside-down.

Description

Before being composed of fragmented glass in this mosaic, the central figure in Touchstone appeared in an earlier painting by Shahzia Sikander, titled Uprooted Order I (1997). The figure is based on the Hindu heroine Radha who has historically been depicted as Krishna’s preferred lover. In Sikander’s representation, however, Radha is shown independent of Krishna, her own divine status and multifaceted identity made visible. Touchstone’s figure holds a chalawa—the Punjabi word for a shape-shifting ghost.
A colorful vertically oriented glass mosaic features fragmented pieces of opaque glass in various shapes, colors, and sizes depicting a woman with light skin tone standing in full body profile, looking to our left, and holding a four-legged, black, shadowy creature with a birdlike head. Large glass fragments suggest brown rocks at her feet and flowers arcing across her left side. Narrow slivers suggest the white, green, and red folds of her dress, swaying to her right, against a blue backdrop with gold arcing over her head.

Touchstone

2021

Shahzia Sikander

(Pakistani American, b. 1969)
America

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