[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:07.75,0:00:12.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[Shahzia Sikander: "The Last Post"]
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.80,0:00:16.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[layered sounds of music samples, static, and distortion]
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.75,0:00:39.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I tend to look into cultural and political boundaries
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.55,0:00:43.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and explore, you know, ideas in those boundaries.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.83,0:00:47.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometimes it's more obvious, sometimes it's less.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.40,0:00:55.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometimes it's more abstract, and sometimes it's far more illustrative of a political idea or thought.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.22,0:01:06.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"The Last Post" plays on the sort of oscillating colonial trade relations
Dialogue: 0,0:01:06.32,0:01:12.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between China and the East India Company at that time, over opium.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.35,0:01:21.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I started looking at the East India Company and at the company man,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:21.73,0:01:25.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,became like the protagonist who travels throughout India,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:25.100,0:01:29.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then ventures into China.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.32,0:01:39.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In this work, it is also referring to the end of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony over China,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.51,0:01:42.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and there is a moment in the animation
Dialogue: 0,0:01:42.52,0:01:50.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where the symbolic figure of the East India Company man sort of explodes.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.52,0:01:53.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[distorted explosion sound plays]
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.83,0:02:09.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There are moments, I think, in the animation that embody some of these concepts,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.33,0:02:16.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it's not necessarily a linear narrative about this whole opium trade.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:23.55,0:02:28.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Animations were quite a natural outcome to my process
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.26,0:02:33.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because I work in drawing primarily, and a lot of the drawings
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.48,0:02:41.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,play with the idea of narrative, and movement was just a natural outcome.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:41.72,0:02:49.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A lot of the murals that I did, a lot of the wall installations, were fairly large, and built in layers,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:49.45,0:02:55.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that also was very similar to how a lot of the animation work was constructed,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:55.35,0:02:58.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which was in Photoshop, in layers.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:03.87,0:03:07.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[woman singing softly]
Dialogue: 0,0:03:19.72,0:03:25.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I'm interested in taking a form, breaking it apart, and then rebuilding it.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:28.23,0:03:30.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is about transformation for me,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:30.83,0:03:38.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whether it is the transformation of the image or a mark or a symbol.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.68,0:03:43.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or if it's the transformation of a genre or transformation of a medium.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.65,0:03:52.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it is a very core notion that I think stabilizes my practice.