Yinka Shonibare/selected works

30.11.13 - 31.12.13, opening: 29.11., 7.30 pm

Gdansk City Gallery 2 (GGM2), ul. Powro?nicka 13/15, Gda?sk

curator: Patrycja Ry?ko

Yinka Shonibare is one of those artists who remain consistent in focussing their practice on a specific set of issues – in his case, questions related to British colonial imperialism, which extend further into contemporary postcolonial complexity.

This artist of British-Nigerian descent is known for his theatrical, multi-threaded and colourful works, featuring, among other things: headless mannequins, ballet dancers, wild animals with Black-Berry phones and gilded pistols, as well as opera arias sung by the wife of Admiral Nelson. Shonibare incorporates fabrics into his paintings, installations and videos as a perfect token of the ambiguity or even contradiction inherent in postcolonial culture. Manufacturing fabrics that seem truly African turns out to have been initiated in the Netherlands following Indonesian patterns, while the items themselves were marketed in 19th century in Western Africa, where only over the course of time did they become part of the African identity.

Shonibare comes up with apt combinations of both historic and contemporary symbols, histories and paradigms – dressing up Victorian figures in African fabrics; or showing stuffed animals with modern gadgets to refer to the Arab Spring. Calling himself a postcolonial hybrid, the artist concentrates on the dynamics of meanings generated in-between the great narrations.

Patrycja Ry?ko