Who owns the seas? Shahzia Sikander's new animation on world trade beamed onto M+ museum facade

Artist Shahzia Sikander’s new hand-drawn animated film, 3 to 12 Nautical Miles, is being screened on the digital façade of Hong Kong’s M+ museum through 21 June. The work uses the historical shift in territorial waters—from three nautical miles to 12—as a framework to examine sovereignty, surveillance, and access in global trade and conflict. Sikander links the Opium Wars, the British East India Company, the weakening of the Qing dynasty and the Mughal Empire under Akbar II, and the cession of Hong Kong, layering motifs such as poppies, maps, and portraits including Qing official Lin Zexu and depictions of Queen Victoria. The film continues Sikander’s animation practice begun in 2001, built from labor-intensive drawings in ink and gouache scanned in layers.

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