Peter Crimmins October 22, 2018
A passer-by looks at "The Perennial Gaze" by Shahzia Sikander, installed in the Bonnell Building of the
Community College of Philadelphia. (Peter Crimmins/WHYY)
A prominent Pakistani-American artist has created a new public mural at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Shahzia Sikander designed a tile mosaic for one of the college’s largest facilities, the Bonnell Building.
The mural is one of the city’s few pieces of public art related to South Asia.
Sikander was born in Pakistan and comes out of a traditional art practice. She studied miniature paintings,
a style that goes back about 1,500 years in South Asia. A resident of the United States for at about 25 years now, she
described her art as contemporary and not necessarily Pakistani.
“To have that narrative — that one is from another culture, so one is supposed to represent that culture or be a spokesperson
for that culture — that is unfair,” she said.
