Shahzia Sikander: The Last Post
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
July 3, 2025 – July 12, 2026
The Last Post, 2010
Single-channel HD digital animation, color,
5.1 surround sound; 10:00 minutes
Music: Du Yun
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Museum purchase through the
Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment,
in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 2025.11
© 2025, Shahzia Sikander.
Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly, New York/Los Angeles
Shahzia Sikander’s iconoclastic multimedia explorations encompass drawing and painting, mosaics, sculpture and video. She initially trained in an illustration tradition—classical Indo-Persian miniature painting—that was bounded by frames, borders and precise architecture. From this, she developed her unique, disruptive style.
Through precisely inked and animated scenes, Sikander’s video animation “The Last Post” (2010) critically considers the legacy of British colonialism in Asia, using her signature approach of infusing Indo-Persian manuscript compositions with a contemporary perspective. “The Last Post” centers a European gentleman in a red waistcoat, a symbol of British imperial power, based on miniature paintings from the late 18th century depicting British East India Company officials. Indian court architecture, Chinese cut-paper silhouettes and a watercolor map of South Asia all dissolve and reconfigure around him as electronic beats by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun explode on the soundtrack.
“The Last Post” was acquired in 2025 by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The work is presented in a dedicated gallery for immersive media art installations that opened in 2023 on the museum’s third floor. The 10-minute film runs continuously and can be entered at any time. The presentation is organized by Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
