Yinka Shonibare: Re-investigating Colonial Histories Through Fabric Art
Characterized by mannequins adorned in elaborate costumes, London-based, British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is known for his installations, sculptures and fabric works. He uses eye-catching African wax print fabrics to offer poignant commentary on shared histories amongst former colonial states. This is due to the fact that the African fabrics he uses carry within them influences from other former European colonies.
His artworks also tailor African wax prints into popular eighteenth and nineteenth-century European fashion. In doing so, he probes into notions of identity and heritage from a complex post-colonial lens. These artworks bring attention to how the identities of former colonies are no longer purely theirs and yet are at the same time.
By fashioning African fabric into European style clothes, Shonibare also reverses persevering colonial power imbalances. Here, the colonizer has now become colonized, appropriated and forced to contemplate on their troubled histories so that former colonies would be able to move forward in a just and equitable way, reflecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Reduced Inequalities.
Understanding Yonibare’s artworks begins with an understanding of the origins of African wax prints. The presence of these colourful and eye-catching fabrics in Africa can be traced back to the Dutch in the nineteenth century.
The Dutch first had aspirations to trade Indonesian batiks, another fabric from yet another Dutch colony. They intended to mass-produce and sell them in Holland. However, at the time batiks proved to be unpopular in Europe—a revelation which led Dutch traders to turn their attention to West Africa as their batik market. They were right, in Africa the fabric gained widespread popularity and became an integral part of local identity and culture. Hence, Shonibare's use of African wax print textiles becomes a powerful symbol of the enduring legacy of colonialism and the interwoven histories of former colonial nations and peoples.
His seminal installation, which employs the fabric is Party Time: Re-imagine America. In this piece, Shonibare has dressed headless mannequins in popular eighteenth century European fashion, tailored from African wax print fabric. The mannequins have gathered for a lavish dinner. Their table has been adorned with crystal bowls overflowing with food and wax print blossoms.
The figures attending this macabre dinner look like they are interacting with one another in a rather forced friendliness, reminding viewers of the intricate web of international relationships forged through centuries of colonial rule and cultural exchange. The mannequins’ terra-cotta complexions further add to Shonibare’s questions around race and identity in post-colonial nations. Where an imbalance of power has persisted between the often fair-skinned colonizer and dark-skinned colonized, something that can still be sensed in colourism that favours lighter skinned individuals in previous colonies.
Party Time: Re-imagine America was a site-specific installation made for Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey. The juxtaposition of Shonibare's installation with the ornate interiors of the museum highlights the piece’s ongoing dialogue with past and present at the same time. In these spaces once inhabited by only the upper class, Shonibare's figures disrupt the veneer of exclusivity, inviting viewers to reexamine historical narratives contained within museums. These are spaces that are often products of the ruling class who have historically profited from colonialism, and whose collections in former colonies come with troubling histories of looting from Indigenous populations.
His latest series, Boomerang: Returning to African Abstraction, delves deeper into cultural appropriation and representation of colonizers and former colonies. The series is composed of quilts and tapestries like Modern Spiritual (Fang Ngil, Kumbaduba), where Shonibare pays homage to African cultural artifacts, particularly African masks by visibly portraying them.
In doing so, he also interrogates the power dynamics that have shaped their international reception and interpretation. African cultural artifacts are often internationally recognized due to their portrayal by Western artists like Picasso and Picabia. These are artists who do not come from African backgrounds and yet have gained popularity by appropriating African artifacts into their pieces. Take for example Picasso’s renowned Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which portrays French sex workers’ faces in the style of African masks. This is a piece of a history that often gets sidelined when people speak of Picasso and his seemingly original cubist movement.
With today’s renewed calls for racial justice and social change, Shonibare's work are powerful reminders of the enduring legacy of colonialism and the urgent need to address the origins of inequalities that have persisted in post-colonial countries. His art invites viewers to reimagine the world they inhabit if it had been untouched by colonialism. They invite them to confront the shadows of the past and to together forge a path toward a more just and equitable future for former colonies and their peoples.