The Last Post centers a European gentleman in a red waistcoat, a symbol of British imperial power. Indian court architecture, Chinese cut-paper silhouettes, and a watercolor map of South Asia all dissolve and reconfigure around him. Artist Shahzia Sikander based this figure on miniature paintings from the late eighteenth century depicting British East India Company officials. Sikander’s faceless “Company man” and his shifting surroundings allude to that corporation’s expanding presence from…