Significant and Insignificant Events

"Significant and Insignificant Events" exhibition explored the meaning of events deeply steeped in military pageantry that can appear to the viewer as bearers of lofty significance and value as well as a number of apparently random and puzzling events that are in fact loaded with hidden meaning. Through the juxtaposition of the works of–Amar Kanwar, Shahzia Sikander and Pascual Sisto–this exhibition suggested that events that are rooted in tradition and in courtly spectacles follow similar modes and rituals of anodyne events., As all of the events depicted follow a stringent and yet enigmatic logic, the viewer had lead to question which event was meaningless and which one was meaningful.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a sentence that overlays an image of a Pakistani army band in Shahzia Sikander’s latest video "Bending the Barrel".



Born in New Delhi in 1964, Amar Kanwar’s “A Season Outside” (1998) opens with the nightly closing of the checkpoint at Wagah on the border between Pakistan and India. Amar Kanwar’s camera follows the rituals of border guards from both countries and their complex choreography of menace, aggression, and defense.


Born in 1969 in Lahore and living in New York,. Shahzia Sikander’s“Bending the Barrel” (2009) takes the viewer on a tour of military bands in Pakistan. It is a study of pageantry and of rigorously pre-determined choreographies that contrast sharply with the emotional space and the feeling of joy and lightness that is created by the music. Combining documentary techniques, visual poetry, and an attention to detail that is the trademark of her work as an artist, Sikander presents us with a meditation on music and military discipline as well as insights into the emotional impact that both have on the musicians.

Born in 1975in Spain and living in Los Angeles, Pascual Sisto’s work is an attempt to visualize liminality by means of repetition, manipulation, interruption, and/or erasure. Such interventions are seen as the liminal states in what are otherwise constant modes of presence. His work focuses on the transitional and uncertain phase of several objects undergoing a rite of passage.