"Why are you making work about Perestroika? You are African, aren't you? Why don't you make authentic African art?" That's the question Yinka Shonibare was asked by his professor while at art school in London. After all, he was, or appeared to be, an African man. From that moment on, Shonibare always made it a point to explore themes of authenticity and origin in his work. And luckily for us, his work is presented through several different fantastic mediums - painting, photography, film and sculpture.
His renderings are just as diverse as his background. Born to wealthy parents in London and raised in Nigeria, Shonibare never felt that he was inferior to anyone because of his skin color. It wasn't until he found trouble selling his "non-African" art as an "African" man that he experienced the limitations of race. And on top of that, Mr. Shonibare has been considerably limited, physically, since he first went against his father's wishes and became an artist. He suffers from a disease that has left him partially paralyzed since he was 18 years old. Now 47, he has never let his race or his handicap be a stymie to his career. Instead, he chose to use them to his advantage, and as a way to set his work apart from that of his contemporaries.
One of the most prominent, and beautiful, examples of the artist's critique on origin and identity, is his use of "African" garments in sculpture. As you will see below, Yinka loves to drape his headless (and brainless?) mannequins with these garments. This became one of his favorite practices when he discovered that these so-called African textiles were actually wax prints exported from the Netherlands into Africa. He found it fascinating that the most Africanest of garments were not from Africa at all...
His renderings are just as diverse as his background. Born to wealthy parents in London and raised in Nigeria, Shonibare never felt that he was inferior to anyone because of his skin color. It wasn't until he found trouble selling his "non-African" art as an "African" man that he experienced the limitations of race. And on top of that, Mr. Shonibare has been considerably limited, physically, since he first went against his father's wishes and became an artist. He suffers from a disease that has left him partially paralyzed since he was 18 years old. Now 47, he has never let his race or his handicap be a stymie to his career. Instead, he chose to use them to his advantage, and as a way to set his work apart from that of his contemporaries.
One of the most prominent, and beautiful, examples of the artist's critique on origin and identity, is his use of "African" garments in sculpture. As you will see below, Yinka loves to drape his headless (and brainless?) mannequins with these garments. This became one of his favorite practices when he discovered that these so-called African textiles were actually wax prints exported from the Netherlands into Africa. He found it fascinating that the most Africanest of garments were not from Africa at all...
How to Blow Up Two Heads at Once (Ladies)
Scramble for Africa
The Swing (after Fragonard)
And here are some of his works using different mediums..
Black Gold II
Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 03.00 hours
A still from his film, Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball)A retrospective of Mr. Shonibare's lifelong works, Yinka Shonibare MBE, is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum until the 20th of September and is then headed to the Smithsonian in our Nation's Capitol. Sooo, if you are in or around Brooklyn before September 20, 2009, or D.C. before March 2010, you should definitely check him out.
If you don't anticipate to be in either of those cities, PBS will be highlighting the artist in their upcoming Art: 21 documentary. Check out the trailer here..
If you don't anticipate to be in either of those cities, PBS will be highlighting the artist in their upcoming Art: 21 documentary. Check out the trailer here..
I heard about this exhibit.. it seemed really interesting. I'll check it out and let you know how it is... or you should just come up and see it for your self.
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