This animation, commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, responds to a 1743 Indian manuscript in its collection, Gulshan-i Ishq (Rose garden of love). Written in 1657-1658 by the poet Nusrati, it expresses a Sufi Islamicate tale in an Indic vernacular, with the complicated journeys of several pairs of lovers providing a metaphor for spiritual quests. Sikander's visual poem with original score takes life's struggle for truth as its point... see more