‘Utopias’, Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA)
Following the commission of ‘Wind Sculpture’ for Howick Place, Yinka Shonibare’s first permanent work in the public domain, HS Projects presented ‘Utopias’, an exhibition of some of the artist’s emblematic works. An interesting dialogue is created between ‘Wind Sculpture’ and the works in the exhibition, continuing Shonibare’s focus on themes of colonialism, trade, race and his signature use of batik Dutch wax fabric designs, better known as ‘African Textiles’.
In ‘Ms Utopia’ (2013) Shonibare presents a tall female figure clothed in the artist’s signature Dutch wax batik fabric, with a celestial globe in place of a head. Conceived as a symbol of peace, she offers the viewer an oversized bunch of hand-made flowers. As in much of Shonibare’s work, the aesthetic allure and vivid patterns of the figure’s costume and bouquet serve as a façade to the complex truths that the artist is exploring. ‘Ms Utopia’ wears a brightly-hued dress with puffed sleeves and cuffs echoing the extravagance of the Rococo period, made from a fabric associated with African identity. However this cloth is in fact a mass-produced textile manufactured by the Dutch after original Indonesian designs. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions and employs the device of the Dutch wax batik fabric to demonstrate the complex and inter-related nature of industry, society and the modern geo-political environment.
The vibrant bunch of gardenias, camelias, peonies and roses is also created from this African cloth and appears to burst with life. However the flowers also serve as a memento mori and their ephemeral nature is designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the fragility of human life. This duality is typical of Shonibare’s work.
Shonibare’s ongoing fascination with the cosmos also plays a significant role in his work. ‘Ms Utopia’ bears a globe head which displays the planetary alignments, referencing the senses of wonderment and curiosity that epitomize the human condition and lending a sense of endless possibility to the sculpture. Shonibare’s mastery is in creating politically and culturally relevant work which seduces with its colour and beauty. Coined for the 1516 book of the same name, the term utopia describes a fictional island proposed by Sir Thomas More as an ideal society. Shonibare’s work frequently explores the theme of revolution, drawing a stark contrast between the utopian ideals inherent in anarchic action and the darker realities of its consequences. As the artist explains, ‘In the short term, on an individual level, you have to work to get yourself to a better position; even if it’s some kind of utopia, you make an effort, you don’t sit back and allow yourself to be oppressed, you fight. I think that’s important. People have to judge history later on’.
‘Adam and Eve’ (2013) is one of Shonibare’s most compelling tableaux, in which he brings to life the biblical tale of utopian ideals and the stark reality of their consequence. Shonibare often references historical moments, art history and well known stories to comment on today’s global climate of social and political disillusionment. He explores both historical and contemporary cycles of revolution, seeking to demonstrate the destructive patterns of human behaviour that repeat themselves through time.
Shonibare’s romanticised version of the story is reimagined in a theatrical form. The figures are headless, referencing the beheadings of the French Revolution, which has come to be a hallmark of the artist’s work. Their luxurious clothes are remade in his trademark Dutch wax batik fabric, which was inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold to the colonies in West Africa. In the 1960’s the material became a new sign of African identity and independence. While the scene set may appear idyllic, Shonibare weaves in fragments of sin and decadence. The female figure’s soft bustle gown is beautifully embellished with bunches of flora, and capped with delicate ivy-shaped sleeves. At the same time, her pose cleverly mimics the diabolical snake cloying at her from above. The male dandy figure steps away, removing himself from the scene and permitting the destined act to take place. This work is a complex and nuanced comment on the state of today’s globalised world and how it is dictated by individual choice.
‘Totem Paintings’, (2011) combine Dutch wax African textiles with thick, impasto paint, juxtaposing vibrant patterns against an intense jet-black background. Shonibare’s tactile paintwork alternates between the side and front of the batik canvases. The tall and slender rectangular forms are framed with a multitude of colourful steel nails that pierce the edges of the canvas. The nails are a direct reference to African ‘minkisi’ voodoo figures made by the Congo people of west-central Africa. Notably, these ‘minkisi’ figures were seized from the indigenous peoples by the colonial forces as they were deemed sinister. As a pop interpretation of African fetish objects, the works speak of artificial exoticism. Through the use of industrially produced textiles, nails and paint, Shonibare explores the stigma associated with the emblematic form of a totem as a means to investigate cultural identities and histories and combines it with his usual ironic expression.
‘Utopias’ was at 5 Howick Place from January to June 2018.
‘Interchange Junctions’
HS Projects curated its first major group exhibition, ‘Interchange Junctions’, at 5 Howick Place. The exhibition examines contested cultural and political histories, which carry special resonance at Howick Place, named after Viscount Howick (later 2nd Earl Grey) one of the main architects of the Reform Act 1832, Catholic emancipation and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
‘Interchange Junctions’ follows on from Yinka Shonibare’s permanent commission ‘Wind Sculpture’, a site specific response to the history of the area and continues Shonibare’s focus on themes of colonialism, trade, and race, employing the artist’s signature use of batik Dutch wax fabric designs which have become synonymous with African identity.
The artists in the exhibition have been invited to create a dialogue with Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Wind Sculpture’, with the multi-cultural aspect of the exhibition paying homage to the enlightened actions carried out in the name of Howick. Through a range of media from film, animation, sculpture, collage, photography, drawing, painting and performance, the artists seek to explore cultural frameworks and issues of identity and how we negotiate these through the historical legacy of our collective past and our ever evolving multi-cultural global world.
‘Interchange Junctions’ offers the opportunity to experience a number of new works and site specific commissions as well as works that have not been shown in London before. Ideas of mobility, memory and transmission, migration, trade and colonial struggle are explored along with notions of social awareness and engagement. Misinterpretation and misplacement of accepted norms from one culture to another are part of a discourse on friction between cultures, identity and cultural belonging. Notions of power, success and failure run through the exhibition challenging long held assumptions.
Participating artists: Faisal Abdu’Allah, Larry Achiampong, Faig Ahmed, Alice Anderson, Shiraz Bayjoo, David Blandy, Phoebe Boswell, Jessie Brennan, Fiona Curran, Corinne Felgate, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Romuald Hazoumè, Rob Kesseler, Alex Lawler, Alan Magee, Jade Montserrat, Alida Rodrigues, Zineb Sedira, Shahzia Sikander, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Michelle Ussher, Andy Wicks and BA(Hons) Ceramic Design Central Saint Martins students (Lucy Anderson, Sarah Christie, Yung Cheuk Chung, Srabani Ghosh, Ziynet Hidiroglu, Ellis Hooson, Sun-a Kim, Friedrich Ly Thien Co, Jessica Martin, David McQuire, Megan Niell, Niamh Philips, Jose Salgrado De Lacerda, Harriet Sennett, Sandra Stallard, Akville Zukauskaite).
During the closing event of 19th June, there was a rap performance by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong who under the alias ‘Biters’, examined the possibility for truthful, authentic experience via the popular cultures that have influenced them. They investigated what identity might mean in the post-colonial and post-mass media age by crate-digging through history, recycling already-sampled beats and reciting stolen rhymes.
‘Interchange Junctions’ was funded by Invesco Real Estate (IRE) and Urban & Civic, the joint developer behind 5 Howick Place with Doughty Hanson & Co Real Estate.
‘Interchange Junctions’ was at 5 Howick Place, Victoria London, from 10 May – 21 June 2014.
‘Champagne Kid (Fallen) and other works’, Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA)
HS Projects presented an exhibition of some of Yinka Shonibare’s recent works, that continue the dialogue with his newly commissioned ‘Wind Sculpture’ for Howick Place, his focus on themes of colonialism, trade, and race, and his signature use of batik Dutch wax fabric designs.
‘Champagne Kid (Fallen)’, 2013 features a young boy caught in a moment of precarious exuberance and illicit celebration. On the floor with his legs in the air, the boy appears to have just toppled over his chair, while clutching a fizzing bottle of Cristal champagne. In the place of his head, one of Shonibare’s trademark globes illustrates the drastic losses in the stock and assets of Lehman Brothers, who declared bankruptcy in 2008. The sculpture calls to mind City whizz kids enjoying a moment of lavish excess, here literally knocked to the floor. With characteristic wit, this playful sculpture is a striking and yet subtle social commentary on our times. Combined with the carnivalesque pose of the animated figure, ‘Champagne Kid (Fallen)’ presents a powerful interpretation of our current state of affairs, as the innocent younger generation is set to inherit the excess of recent times.
In ‘B(w)anker (2)’, 2013 Shonibare presents a sharply suited rotund figure, with an exploding magnum of champagne. The cork explodes from the neck as fizz sprays out suggestively in a moment of raucous celebration. This portly gentleman presents himself as an upstanding member of society but is here caught off guard in a moment of debauched jubilation. The banker is tailored in a bespoke Victorian suit made in Shonibare’s signature wax batik fabric, the dress coat particularly highlighted with a bright explosive patterning. On closer inspection, the fobs on his gold chain include charms of golden nuggets and a ‘Veuve Clicquot’ bottle of champagne. The ‘B(w)anker (2)’ is a humorous reminder of a bygone era known for valuing class, money and indulgence: powerfully bringing to mind our own generation’s financial predicament. A commentary on the excess of the banking world, this work is a playful and provocative sculpture that is at once beautiful and bold.
The ‘Totem Paintings (1-5)’, 2011 combine African textiles with thick, impasto paint, bringing bright colours together with intense black. Tall and slender, their forms relate to the totems of the title. The nails that protrude from the edges of the canvas are a direct reference to African ‘minkisi’ figures made by the Kongo people of west-central Africa. These carved wooden objects were believed to have immense power, containing a spirit that was called upon to protect families or whole villages, to put right various wrongs such as crimes, and to exact vengeance and punishment. Hammering nails into the minkisi was intended to activate their spirits, with additional nails added every time the spirit was invoked. Minkisi were deemed sinister and threatening by colonial forces and were often seized – a symbolic gesture demonstrably removing power from the indigenous population. It was at this time that they became known as ‘fetish’ objects, emphasising the supposed strange savageness of the people who had made them. Many of the figures were brought back to England as curiosities. One of the ‘Totem Paintings’ has Dutch Wax fabric featuring UFOs, as though to emphasise further the perception of the minkisi and the cultures they hail from as alien. This is the first time this series has been shown together in London.
‘Champagne Kid (Fallen) and other works’ was at 5 Howick Place from April to September 2014.