Shahzia Sikander’s film, The Last Post is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., now through July 12, 2026.

The film was recently added to SAAM’s collection as part of a longstanding time-based media art initiative. It is presented in a dedicated gallery for immersive media art installations, the ten-minute film will run continuously, and can be entered at any time.

The Last Post centers around a European gentleman in a red jacket, a symbol of British imperial power, while Indian court architecture, Chinese cut-paper silhouettes, and a watercolor map of South Asia all dissolve and reconfigure around him. Shahzia Sikander based this figure on miniature paintings from the late eighteenth century depicting British East India Company officials.

Sikander’s faceless “Company man” and his shifting surroundings allude to that corporation’s expanding presence from the 1600s to the 1800s in South Asia and China, where it blurred state, military, and mercantile power. As images traverse the screen, the accompanying soundtrack by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun pulses rhythmically, inviting the viewer to viscerally feel the reverberations of imperial activities across continents, oceans, and time.

@shahzia.sikander @shahzia_sikander_studio @smithsonian
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