Pakistani artist installs ‘lady justice’ outside US court

The new sculpture is now the first female figure to stand on one of the ten plinths that are atop Manhattan’s impressive New York appellate courthouse.

“Standing among Moses, Confucius, and Zoroaster is the shimmering, golden eight-foot female sculpture, emerging from a pink lotus flower and wearing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s signature lace collar,” Shahzia stated in an interview with *The New York Times.

“The sculpture was part of an urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York, along with cities across the world, reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social mores,” NOW Sikandar told the publication about her sculpture.

She went on to say, “The work was called NOW because it was needed “now,” at a time when women’s reproductive rights were under attack because the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June.”

Witness, another of Sikandar’s sculptures, is in Madison Square Park, New York. It is a massive woman who is 18 feet tall and wears a hoop skirt that was inspired by the stained-glass ceiling dome of the courtroom.

In addition, Time Out’s list of the best outdoor arts in New York included Sikandar’s work.

The publication commented on her work, saying, “The figure’s twisted arms and legs suggest tree roots, referencing what the artist has described as the’self-rootedness of the female form;” It is able to take its roots with it wherever it goes.

Through augmented reality (AR), you can even use your smartphone to bring the figure to life.