This week, host Rumaan Alam talks to artist Shahzia Sikander about her decades-long career as a painter and multimedia artist. In the interview, Shahzia discusses the process behind her painting “The Scroll,” which she created as an undergraduate student in Pakistan. She also talks about her relationship to the concept of “tradition” and her unwillingness to either break or conform to it.

After the interview, Rumaan and co-host Isaac Butler discuss the importance of demystifying artwork.

In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Shahzia grapples with the way her art was received in the 1990s and the tendency to look at her work through the narrow lens of her biography.

Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.

Podcast production by Cameron Drews.

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Artist Shahzia Sikander on the Painting That Launched Her Career