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Cage-corset

2007

Pakistani, born 1968

Khan, along with Pakistani welder Mohammed Qasim, crafted Cage-corset using Khan’s bodily proportions to give the sculpture a lifelike appearance. The object was made as a counter-narrative to some of the prescriptive Urdu texts that had arisen in the early 20th century to control women’s bodies. Khan also researched the history of chastity belts and corsets at the British Museum and Library and explored medieval European poetry and women’s clothing of the zenana (women’s apartments) in early 20th century India. Cage-corset comments both on women’s attire and how women navigate space within South Asia and Europe.

Metal and fabric

11 13/16 x 11 13/16 x 11 13/16 in. (30 x 30 x 30 cm)

Purchased with funds from Dipti and Rakesh Mathur

2022.1.1

Provenance: The artist; [Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London, England]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2022

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryQueensland, Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9), Nov. 24, 2018 - Apr. 28, 2019.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Embodied Change: South Asian Art Across Time, Jan. 14 - July 10, 2022.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view July 30, 2022 - Jan. 8, 2023].

Published ReferencesIftikhar Dadi, Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010): p. 205.

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