Double Dress: Yinka Shonibare, a Nigerian-British Artist
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
May 31 - October 29, 2002
The first mid-career retrospective of Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare premieres at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Organized by the Israel Museum, Double Dress: Yinka Shonibare, a Nigerian/British Artist features over 20 works, including large-scale installations, paintings and photographs. By interweaving African and traditional English motifs and imagery, Shonibare addresses critical issues of inter-culturalism with both sensitivity and humor. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the Israel Museum.
Drawing upon his own life experiences, Yinka Shonibare creates works that examine notions of identity and affiliation while challenging aesthetic and social structures and conventions. Born in London in 1962, Yinka Shonibare moved to Lagos, Nigeria with his family when he was a young boy. At seventeen he returned to England where he studied art at Goldsmiths College. His works are filled with both cultural collisions and confluences and often combine elements of "high" and "low" art.
A number of Yinka Shonibare's life-size installations recreate scenes from classical European paintings using mannequins dressed in Victorian costumes made of fabrics with African motifs. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews without Their Heads (1998), for example, was inspired by Thomas Gainsborough's famous portrait of the British gentry, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (1748-49), and explores the relationship between British aristocracy and colonialism, suggesting that the wealth of the upper classes was often a result of the colonization of Africa.
One of the artist's central themes is the "dandy," and Yinka Shonibare often portrays himself as this aristocratic, witty, and decadent character. In many of his photographs, Shonibare also places himself in carefully staged scenes featuring iconic images of English high society. In his twelve-part photographic work Dorian Gray (2001), Yinka Shonibare assumes the role the namesake of Oscar Wilde's novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, inspired by scenes from the 1945 film version of the novel.
"Shonibare's exploration of identity and affiliation in diverse societies could not be more timely," stated James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. "The issues he addresses are affecting the social fabric of nations throughout the world, but are especially relevant to Jerusalem, whose history has been shaped by the confluence of so many cultures. The Israel Museum is a perfect venue for presenting the work of this important artist."
Yinka Shonibare's work is in numerous private and public collections, including the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
"Shonibare's work is extremely powerful, intelligent and witty," noted Suzanne Landau, curator of the exhibition and Chief Curator of the Arts at the Israel Museum. "He captures the essence of our time by juxtaposing and combining disparate cultures and traditions, which makes his work so significant and meaningful today."
Yinka Shonibare was born in London in 1962. He grew up in Nigeria, his family's country of origin, and returned to England at the age of seventeen. This bicultural artist has created a significant body of critically acclaimed paintings, photographs, and installations that address issues of identity, class, and race. Using wit and humor, he uncovers the many layers of contemporary culture and its historical baggage.
In the early 1990s Yinka Shonibare began using faux-African cotton prints, fabrics that had become an expression of African identity, but were in fact products of colonial commerce and industry that originated elsewhere. At first he stretched the fabric across square frames, arranging them in a grid on the gallery wall; later he began to play with the fabrics in elaborate, nineteenth-century Victorian dresses and corsets. By the late 1990s his subject matter had expanded to include aliens and astronauts, along with spoofs of classic European high culture from Hogarth and Fragonard to Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. New themes, such as the nuclear family, were introduced, and familiar themes were explored in new contexts, for example, the colonial aspects of space travel.
As his work evolved, Yinka Shonibare also began experimenting with a wider variety of media, including photography and digital imaging. This increased range of methods has allowed the artist to make pointed critiques across a spectrum of political, social, and cultural concerns, and it has given him the opportunity to situate the "African" prints in novel contexts, keeping the ironic incongruities fresh and sophisticated.
Although often linked to colonialism and identity, Yinka Shonibare's works are not defined by this connection. "I hate conclusive things," he insists. "I think once a piece is conclusive, it's dead. The mind should be allowed to travel and have fantasy and imagination. People's minds need to wander."
The exhibition is on view in the Nathan Cummings 20th Century Art Building.
A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.
ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM
