The controversial sculpture “Witness” by Shahzia Sikander, which is on display at the Cullen Family Plaza at the University of Houston (UH), was beheaded during Hurricane Beryl last week.
The 18-foot-tall sculpture of a female figure with a judicial lace and goat horns, made of painted milled high-density foam, steel, fiberglass, and glass tile, was damaged on July 8 when the storm hit the campus.
The university believes that the decapitation resulted from vandalism.
UH’s The Daily Cougar has reported that UH campus police is in possession of footage of the decapitation and that an investigation of the incident is currently being conducted. According to UH, the footage was released on Monday to the public.
“The cowardice of vandalizing during [a] storm. Trying to create false miracles because they have nothing else, but that violent narrative cannot be cloaked in the storm. I urge the University of Houston to release the footage from the security camera to show that it was intentional hateful vandalism,” said Sikander.
Sikander also gave a statement to the New York Times ...
