As we kick off Women’s History Month, we could not be more excited about Shahzia Sikander’s outdoor multimedia installation “Havah...to breathe, air, life,” whose sculptures centered around themes of women and justice, a theme akin to our own ethos, are currently gracing Madison Square Park and atop the Courthouse of the First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. A “citizen of the world”, Ms. Sikander who hails from Pakistan and lives in New York City received the prestigious United States Medal of Arts in 2012 and has been acknowledged for renewing interest in the Indo-Persian miniature form and revolutionizing the feminist neo-miniature movement worldwide.

“Havah…to breathe, air, life” consists of two sculptures of women; Witness, which sits at the entrance of Madison Square Park and 25th Street, and NOW, which is perched atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court and is the first female figure to be installed there. With her limbs as tree roots, her hair braided and coiled like a ram’s horn, her head held high and eyes wide open, Sikander’s golden women sculptures encompass symbols of power, strength, durability, and femininity. Whereas “Justice” throughout history has been symbolized as a woman, blindfolded, and holding scales, Sikander’s allegorical women suggest a new vision of woman and power in the justice system. Complete with a decorative jabot at the neckline, a nod to the lace collar worn by the late, trailblazing United States Supreme Court associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Witness and NOW remind us to “reverse stereotypes about gender, race, immigrants, and the unfamiliar” as noted by the artist.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently spoke at a naturalization ceremony in the rotunda of Washington D.C.’s National Archives where thirty-one men and women become new citizens. As she’s done before, Justice Ginsburg shared her own immigration story: "My own father arrived in this land at age 13 with no fortune and speaking no English,” she said. “My mother was born four months after her parents—with several children in tow—came by ship to Ellis Island. My father and my grandparents reached, as you do, for the American dream." She asked the attendees: “What is the difference between a bookkeeper in New York City's Garment District and a Supreme Court Justice? One generation.”