19.12.2010
Yinka Shonibare and the Search for Africa
Yinka Shonibare and the Search for Africa by Ellen Brooks
When British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare was told by his teachers he needed to incorporate “Africa” into his art, to relate more to his “African” heritage, he went shopping. In the Brixton markets in his home of London he found a miraculous textile called Dutch wax. Piled among second-hand clothes, and smelling of the neighborhood’s mostly African and Caribbean cuisine, Shonibare decided these textiles were exactly what had been missing from his identity. Dutch wax textiles were developed in the nineteenth century in the Netherlands, in an attempt to challenge the production of batik cloth in Indonesia. The fabrics were actually rejected by the very Indonesian market for which they were intended, leaving the Dutch and British manufacturers to try to sell the textiles in a second colonial outpost, West Africa. The contradictory nature of the textiles has become more and more integral to Shonibare’s art as his career has progressed.[i]
When British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare was told by his teachers he needed to incorporate “Africa” into his art, to relate more to his “African” heritage, he went shopping. In the Brixton markets in his home of London he found a miraculous textile called Dutch wax. Piled among second-hand clothes, and smelling of the neighborhood’s mostly African and Caribbean cuisine, Shonibare decided these textiles were exactly what had been missing from his identity. Dutch wax textiles were developed in the nineteenth century in the Netherlands, in an attempt to challenge the production of batik cloth in Indonesia. The fabrics were actually rejected by the very Indonesian market for which they were intended, leaving the Dutch and British manufacturers to try to sell the textiles in a second colonial outpost, West Africa. The contradictory nature of the textiles has become more and more integral to Shonibare’s art as his career has progressed.[i]
pattern ID
Certain patterns seem unmistakable: the geometric diamonds of a Navajo blanket, the neatly arranged vines of damask wallpaper, or the interlocking initials of the Louis Vuitton logo. But what happens when you transform the classically sober brown and tan Louis Vuitton pattern into an explosion of bright colors intermingled with Japanese animation forms? Or pair oversized hip-hop clothing with damask wallpaper patterns? Combine fussy Victorian style clothing with vibrant, African prints? The meanings and origins of these patterns are transformed into something new.
Over the last two decades, artists have increasingly turned to pattern and dress as a language with which to communicate who they are and where they come from. The experiences of culture clash, immigration and multi-ethnicity in our globalized world have driven artists to use this visual language to chart their personal and communal histories. Through pattern and dress, artists compress time and cross geographic boundaries to illustrate the various influences that inform their cultural identities. The artists freely mix motifs from popular culture, history and art history to transform the meanings of patterns. Pattern ID features 15 artists of diverse origins who have seized on pattern and dress as powerful visual connectors between themselves, their histories and their audiences.
“The artists use pattern and dress to take up the 21st century challenge of locating one’s place in society against the backdrop of globalization,” said Ellen Rudolph, the museum’s curator of exhibitions. “Many of the artists in the exhibition have migrated from one culture to another, be it national, ethnic, racial, sexual, socioeconomic, political or religious. Rather than trade one identity for another, the artists in Pattern ID reveal ways in which identity can be cumulative.”
The approximately 40 works in Pattern ID include those of: Mark Bradford, (b. 1961, Los Angeles, CA); iona rozeal brown (b. 1966, Washington DC); Nick Cave (b. 1959, Jefferson City, MO); Willie Cole (b. 1955, Somerville, NJ); Lalla Essaydi (b. 1955, Morocco); Samuel Fosso (b. 1962, Cameroon); James Gobel (b. 1972, Las Vegas, NV); Brian Jungen (b. 1970, Fort St. John, British Columbia); Bharti Kher (b. 1969, London); Takashi Murakami (b. 1962, Tokyo); Grace Ndiritu (b. 1976, Birmingham, England); Yinka Shonibare MBE (b. 1962, London); Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, Camden, NJ); Aya Uekawa (b. 1979, Tokyo); Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Los Angeles, CA)
Entangled Global Patterns of Cultural Identity
La femme américaine libérée des années 70
Entangled Global Patterns of Cultural Identity
by Patty Chang
Textile patterns and dress provide a rich visual vocabulary of encoded information and aesthetic expression. They have the ability to exploit or subvert the commercial allure of the “exotic”, and how it is called upon to reference cultural or national identities or even recast the vernacular. The exhibition Pattern ID, which is currently on view at the Akron Art Museum, queries just how straight forward patterns and dress inform our understanding of cultural identities. The multimedia exhibition entitled, Pattern ID, features the works of Mark Bradford, iona rozeal brown, Nick Cave, Willie Cole, Lalla Essaydi, Samuel Fosso, James Gobel, Brian Jungen, Bharti Kher, Takashi Murakami, Grace Ndiritu, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Mickalene Thomas, Aya Uekawa, and Kehinde Wiley. Many of these contemporary artists have migrated from one culture to another, be it national, ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, political or religious. Rather than trade one identity for another, the artists reveal ways in which identity can be cumulative, employing a patchwork of textile patterns and dress as meaningful vehicles to locate one’s place in society against a backdrop of globalization. Taking a range of approaches from humor to irony and formal beauty, these artists borrow from popular culture, world history, and art history to transform and redefine the cultural meanings of patterns.
Yinka Shonibare - How to Blow up Two Heads at Once
How to Blow up Two Heads at Once (Ladies & Gentlemen), 2006
Yinka Shonibare - Vacancies
Vacation, 2000
Wax-printed cotton textile, fiberglass
On first inspection, Yinka Shonibare's »Vacation« seems an innocuous play on space exploration and its implications for science and human progress. However, Shonibare's astronauts are dressed in space suits of so-called African wax-printed cotton textile, certainly not the attire normally associated with space travel. The astronauts' attire evokes the notion of 'going native', while speaking to the possibilities of a dominant 'Other'. Shonibare's suggestion that one can embody the paradox of alien/Other and colonialist/explorer demonstrates the complexity of power dynamics between groups.
Wax-printed cotton textile, fiberglass
On first inspection, Yinka Shonibare's »Vacation« seems an innocuous play on space exploration and its implications for science and human progress. However, Shonibare's astronauts are dressed in space suits of so-called African wax-printed cotton textile, certainly not the attire normally associated with space travel. The astronauts' attire evokes the notion of 'going native', while speaking to the possibilities of a dominant 'Other'. Shonibare's suggestion that one can embody the paradox of alien/Other and colonialist/explorer demonstrates the complexity of power dynamics between groups.
Yinka Sonibare - Gallantry and Criminal, 2002
Shonibare nimmt Bezug auf eine "Grand Tour", eine Landpartie von Adligen im 18. Jahrhundert. Die Kostüme sind aus bedruckten afrikanischen Stoffen geschneidert.
Yinka Shonibare, a British Nigerian artist working in the twenty first century, represents more than just a meeting of two identities; his art more than just Africa meeting the West. Best known for his sculptural installations, Shonibare dresses life-size headless mannequins in elaborate Victorian fashions. The cloth he chooses for these clothes, however, has a trajectory of its own. Dutch wax is a complicated material, with roots in both Europe and Africa and meaning that changes upon its context. Using the Dutch wax to upset the inherent harmony of the art historical importance his works recall, Shonibare plays with how we interpret one another. In the piece 100 Years from 2000 he takes his game to a new level. Exploiting the modernist form of the grid with Dutch wax, Shonibare uses the size and conflicting materials of paint and textile to represent more than just a joke. 100 Years exposes a deeper entanglement: a more painful relationship between Africa and the West that has been masked with both humor and ignorance for over a century.
12.12.2010
gelesen: Baumwolle, Sklaven und Kredite
Yvonne: Sehr reduziert auf die Aufarbeitung der Handelsbeziehungen aus dem Nachlass. Mit Fokus auf die Beziehungen zwischen dem Basler Unternehmen und dem des Sohnes Christoph Bourcard in Nantes, dem französischen Haupthafen im Dreieckshandel. Interessant durch die Beschreibung der damals herrschenden kriminellen Handelsstrategien wie internationaler Schmugel und dem Betreiben von Kaper- und Aventouriesschiffen.
Kaum Informationen zum Sklavenhandel selbst oder zur Gestaltung und Manufaktur der Indiennes.
11.12.2010
indiennes 3
Europäische Fantasien für afrikanische Kunden. Indiennes-Motiv, 2. Hälfte 18. Jh. Favre-Petitpierre&Cie., Nantes
09.12.2010
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