The female golden resistance takes centre stage in Manhattan

By existing at such a height and in a spot frequented daily by commuters, it creates an unwavering dialogue which New Yorkers cannot look away from.

The Courthouse’s rooftop has traditionally only consisted of male figures, such as historic Emperors, Kings, and Philosophers. The addition of Now allows for a female lawgiver to be added to one of the Courthouse’s 10 plinths for the first time in the building’s one-hundred and twenty-four year history.

The second sculpture titled Witness is located in Madison Square Park, this time towering at eighteen feet tall. With a similar design of its top half to Now, this sculpture is adorned with a hoop skirt made up of metal framing and fragments of stained glass, inspired by the Courthouse’s ceiling dome.

Written onto the surface of the sculpture is the word ‘Havah’, which translates to ‘Eve’ in Arabic, or ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’ in Urdu.

Describing it as a “critical part of the natural environment of Madison Square Park”, Sikander’s work seeks to draw upon the close proximity and relationship between the park and Courthouse. Working to connect those who frequent the area on a regular basis and create a new form of communication when it comes to women and justice.

Visitors to the park can also take part in an augmented reality (AR) experience which ‘features a display of colourful particles and ghostlike images of the courthouse figure’, via use of a smartphone.

Both sculptures seek to translate the need for justice through artistic exploration, allowing for its meaning to be divulged and expanded on by passers-by. In a rare moment, it allows for feminine justice to sit with fluidity and certainty.

As an additional offering, the park will also exhibit a video animation called Reckoning, centring a collision of the two works. This final instalment ‘alludes to the interstices, the transitory, the mythos of the migrant and the citizen, women, and power, the colonized, the artist, and all those that are caught between worlds, artistic vocabularies, cultures, practices, and histories.’

Havah…to breathe, air, life is Shahzia Sikander’s first major outdoor project. It is co-commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy and the Public Art of the University of Houston System and will be on display until June 4^th.