Opinion | Shahzia Sikander chooses to leave her statue beheaded

Shahzia Sikander is a visual artist based in New York.

At 3 a.m. on July 8, a man with a hammer decapitated an 18-foot sculpture of a woman at the University of Houston. I made this sculpture, and I called it “Witness” as an allegory of the power — or rather the lack of power — that women are accorded within the justice system.

In an unexpected way, “Witness” has lived up to its name.

As the artist who created the work, I have chosen not to repair it. I want to leave it beheaded, for all to see. The work is now a witness to the fissures in our country.

Co-commissioned by New York’s Madison Square Park Conservancy and by Public Art of the University of Houston System, the sculpture had been criticized by one of the state’s largest antiabortion groups, Texas Right to Life, before the attack took place. The main charge was that the work honored abortion and had “satanic” features.

The lace jabot on the sculpture is a nod to the feminization of the historically male black judicial robe begun by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. The collar was later popularized by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The sculpture’s limbs are made to suggest self-rootedness, something I have likened to women’s resilience in carrying their roots wherever they go.

The now-destroyed face of the sculpture was a combination of various female poets. The figure wore her hair in braids resembling ram’s horns, universal symbols of strength and wisdom and a recurring motif in the New York appellate courthouse in New York City, which was a point of reference for “Witness.” A ram and its horn decorate the arms of the judges’ benches in the courtroom. The braided hair drew in part on the visual histories of Africa and Asia: early 20th-century Nigerian crest masks and the spiraling snail-shell hair curls that often decorate representations of the Buddha’s head.

It is my prerogative — some would argue responsibility — as an artist to ask how art can reimagine society. When we are witnessing a regression of women’s rights around the world, especially in the United States, art can function as a vehicle of defiance. It can also be a path toward rectification.

It’s clear to me that the people opposed to the statue object to its message of women’s power.

The recently released video footage of the desecration in Houston shows a premeditated attack in the middle of the night, an hour before the onset of a devastating hurricane. Maybe the perpetrator thought their act would be blamed on high winds.

So what should happen now? Diversity of thought and opinion should be a goal for all — but especially for our universities where free speech must be respected above all. We should use art to cultivate imagination, build empathy, bridge political divides and further our common humanity.

The University of Houston should take this opportunity to educate the public about the art that was savaged and address the ignorance and rage underlying the attack. The First Amendment protects my freedom to create art, irrespective of how one chooses to interpret my work.

And we should leave the statue the way it is: a testament to the hatred and division that permeate our society.