NEW YORK – Pakistani-American sculptor brings dark times, science fictionand a desire to provoke to New York´s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art forthis year´s rooftop installation overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
Huma Bhabha´s “We Come in Peace” depicts a towering 12-foot, five-headedfigure weighing 1.5 tonnes and an 18-foot long prostrate figure covered ina trash bag and called Benaam, or “without name” in Urdu.
The installation, which opened Tuesday, is the sixth annual commission atthe illustrious US museum´s roof garden, a popular summer spot that drawsnearly half a million visitors every year.
Karachi-born Bhabha, who lives in New York state´s Hudson Valley, is thefirst Pakistani American selected for the honour. Imran Qureshi, based inPakistan, was the first Pakistani artist to present work for thecommission, in 2013.
Bold, dramatic and thought-provoking, the weather-proof figures cast inbronze have political undertones, reflect social concerns and referenceancient African and Indian sculpture, according to the Met.
“It´s what is brewing in your head,” Bhabha told AFP, insisting she wantsvisitors to make their own interpretations.
“I don´t want to necessarily say it´s this or that because that closes theconversation, but there are lots of different scenarios that one can comeup with.”
Nor does she join the chorus in Democrat-heavy New York that focuses blameon US President Donald Trump for what many in the city see as the country´sills.
“It goes beyond Trump,” she said. “Yes, he has made everything very vulgarand very in your face. But I think there are problems that have beenexisting much before he took over,” she said. “I think we´re in very darktimes.”
*´Numerous levels of meaning´ *
The work was at least partly inspired by 1951 science-fiction film “The Daythe Earth Stood Still” in which an alien arrives on our planet tellinghumans they must live peacefully or face destruction.
“Huma´s work felt right for this particular moment,” explained ShanayJhaveri, assistant curator of South Asian art.
“There are numerous levels of meaning embedded in them and I think we justwanted people to step back and to be provoked a little bit,” he said in aninterview.
“There is politics in it. What is happening under that garbage bag? What isthe form?” Jhaveri said.
He urged viewers to “think through various kinds of concerns that they areseeing around them in these times of anxiety and paranoia and danger andcollapse.”
Bhabha specialises in figurative sculpture and has addressed themes such ascolonialism, war and displacement in her work.
Her work has been exhibited at New York´s MoMA PS1, as well as the VeniceBiennale and the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, among others.
The installation is scheduled to remain open until October 28, weatherpermitting.