Be. Very. Careful. Who. You. Invite. In

This essay argues that the discursive violence Shahzia Sikander's artwork Havah incited on the pages of publications like the New York Times, cannot be seen as separate to the actual destruction of one of the two statues comprising the artwork. The essay further underscores that this violence has its roots in Christian eschatological extremist ways of viewing the world. As such, it is important to recognize the multicultural decolonial feminism that undergirds Sikander's artistic vision and practice, conjuring up interconnected magical worlds of human, vegetal and animal beauty. Viewers are invited into these mystical, magical realms through the queer optic her work enjoins, a resistant gaze to the scourge of Islamophobia, heteropatriarchy, racism, xenophobia and other extremist ideologies on the rise in the USA and the world today

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