The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

A colorful vertically oriented glass mosaic features fragmented pieces of opaque glass in various shapes, colors, and sizes depicting a woman with light skin tone standing in full body profile, looking to our left, and holding a four-legged, black, shadowy creature with a birdlike head. Large glass fragments suggest brown rocks at her feet and flowers arcing across her left side. Narrow slivers suggest the white, green, and red folds of her dress, swaying to her right, against a blue backdrop with gold arcing over her head.

Touchstone

2021

Shahzia Sikander

(Pakistani American, b. 1969)
America
glass mosaic with patinated brass frame
211.1 x 152.1 cm (83 1/8 x 59 7/8 in.); Framed: 213.5 x 154.6 x 5.1 cm (84 1/16 x 60 7/8 x 2 in.)
Dorothea Wright Hamilton Fund 2025.1
© Shahzia Sikander, courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly, New York / Los Angeles
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Some of the pieces of glass in Touchstone are placed on their side and upside-down.

Description

Before being composed of fragmented glass in this mosaic, the central figure in Touchstone appeared in an earlier painting by Shahzia Sikander, titled Uprooted Order I (1997). The figure is based on the Hindu heroine Radha who has historically been depicted as Krishna’s preferred lover. In Sikander’s representation, however, Radha is shown independent of Krishna, her own divine status and multifaceted identity made visible. Touchstone’s figure holds a chalawa—the Punjabi word for a shape-shifting ghost.
  • 2021
    collection of the artist
    after 2021–2025
    (Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY, 2025, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2025–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Sikander, Shahzia, William Griswold, Cameron Kitchin, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Shahzia Sikander : Collective Behavior. Edited by Ainsley M. Cameron and Emily Liebert. New York, Cincinnati: Monacelli Press ; Cincinnati Museum of Art, 2025. Reproduced: p. 94, plate 45; details pp. 3-4, 71, 224; mentioned: pp. 71, 95.
  • Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 8, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=Touchstone|url=false|author=Shahzia Sikander|year=2021|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.1