Yinka Shonibare MBE, will you marry me?

 

On Saturday I discovered the new love of my life in the art world.  Yinka Shonibare MBE.  I had been dying to see his show at the Brooklyn Museum since the posters went up around the city but I only just managed to slip in under the wire the day before the exhibit closed.  Before even knowing anything about Shonibare's objectives I fell in love with his sculptural installations.   Among my favorites are Leisure Lady (With Ocelots), Gallantry and Criminal Conversation and The Swing (after Fragonard).  There is a seductive decadence in the layers and layers of elaborately ruched fabric in colonial style, which contrasts wonderfully with the flamboyant and playful patterns of dutch wax fabric.  His sense of humor and irony are palpable before even reading his artist statements.  His choice to leave his characters headless, partially to create racial ambiguity, deeply resonated with me of course because in most of my work I also exploit ambiguity in not allowing the viewer to see the face of the characters.  Shonibare explains that his gravitation towards the use of dutch wax fabric stems from the concept that it is such a culturally African look on the surface, but this is fake because in fact those fabrics were made by Dutch and English factories and shipped to Africa which reasserts the idea of European colonial control even on the most basic cultural levels.  

By the time I reached his photo series, Diary of a Victorian Dandy, I had nearly had a cerebral aneurysm in my excitement.  I really love elaborately staged photographs that have a complex narrative and heaps of details to dissect and these images were brimming with these qualities.  Inspired by the satirical art of William Hogarth this series pictures a day in the life of the Victorian Dandy with Shonibare as the central character.  The images show that the dandy rises at 11 am, attends to his business at 2 pm, plays billiards at 5 pm, attends a recital at 7 pm, and partakes of an orgy at 3 am.  All the while surrounded by doting white servants and admirers, Shonibare plays with the idea of the dandy as an outsider.  My feeling in viewing and interacting with Shonibare's work is that I have entered a mirror world.  He makes reference to classical paintings and clothing styles and eras we all know, but flips them a little bit while still making them feel totally believable.  

Another piece this feeling really struck me with was Odile and Odette, based on the ballet of Swan Lake.  Two dancers mirror each other separated by a frame.  One dancer is white and one is black but everything they do and what they are wearing and their physical builds are exactly the same.  I got the sense that on opposite sides of the mirror world things operated more or less the same only on one side of the mirror it was Europe that was colonized and on the other side it was Africa that was colonized.   Shonibare's work has qualities of activism but without the angry moralizing that a lot of activist art seems to have.  Shonibare seduces the viewer in a playful celebration of excessiveness and decadence while expressing what could be, what was and what is.  There is so much more I could say but I will hold off for now.   All of this is hugely inspiring for some photo ideas that I’ve had for months but procrastinated on starting on!  Ahhh Yinka Shonibare I love you!