Picture out: an abstract figure of a woman wearing a long white veil covering her face; her many hands holding various weapons. Her pose is ready to assault anyone who dares mock her strength. The body is grotesque and heavily mutilated; the chest is ripped open, while the thighs and legs somehow reflect the reality, the feet are made up of wiggly cords connected to each other. Another miniature image of a woman on the left, dressed in white yet bare starting from the hips up to the legs. Her face is still semi-covered with thin strips of red and light pink lines. She wears a short hair and a red bandanna. Against the golden background this brutal imagery strikes fear and somehow curiosity from the audiences. To emphasize the importance, the artist made the figure on the left smaller compared to the one on the right. The imagery is asymmetrical since the larger icon is located at the left while the smaller one is on the right. Earth tone colors were used to depict the real color of the flesh; implied lines form the contours of the body. Monochromatic pigments achieved slight chiaroscuro to emphasize the illusion of depth and contrasts. The image is flat and unrealistic. Sikander’s Fleshy Weapons is a form of protest against the existence of patriarchy in the Muslim and Hindu communities particularly in Pakistan and other Muslim states. The fact that Muslim women are not allowed to expose their face and remain covered for the rest of their lives demonstrates a worse case of demeaning and gender inequality. She merged the form of Hindu goddess with that of a Muslim woman. As she noted: “Such juxtaposing and mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography is a parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan.” (Art21, “Shahzia Sikander”).
The semi-naked small woman on the right was depicted as small as possible to illustrate that the notion of sexuality is forbidden in these countries and that the Muslim and Hindu cultures’ law to exclude its women is exhibited by the angry abstract image of a woman holding various weapons. Due to their continuous oppression, Muslim and Hindu women are generally oppressed and treated lowly than their male counterparts; and because of this, the figure of the goddess is yet to be revealed to the audiences once the veil is lifted. In other words, the veil of these women might be their lifelong chain to seclusion but underestimating them just because of their gender is certainly unwise and may lead to violence and aggression on their end. The painting is executed by smooth brush strokes of various pigments such as acrylic, tea wash, and water color painted on linen cloth. The artist painted this in 1997 and currently exhibited at the gallery of Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York, United States.
WORKS CITED
“Shahzia Sikander Biography.” N.d. Art21. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Sikander, Shiahzia. “Fleshy Weapons.” Circa 1997. Mixed media on linen cloth. Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, United States. Art21. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
