Regarded as a pioneer of a contemporary miniature revival movement in Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander’s expansive practice exemplifies the intense labour rooted in the miniature, as evidenced in this work. Sikander projects a video onto the screen of a derelict and unused cinema in the town of Khorfakkan to animate its multiple myths and histories. She then photographs the interior and the exterior of the disused cinema to revive a site that was once feted for its diverse cinematic programming and colourful architectural motifs. The cinema manager and caretaker, originally from Pakistan, devoted his life to the building. While projecting and photographing this work, Sikanderlearned that he was part of the construction team in 1976 and is still a resident of the building. Echoing her practice, which creates critical dialogues between popular culture, mythology and contemporary theory, the two C-prints, titled The cypress, despite its freedom, remains captive to the garden, simultaneously reflect on the worker's displacement and the diminished functionality of the abandoned space.