Shonibare, CBE, Yinka
This work is unabashedly decorative but there is more to it than mere decor. Like many other painting installations by Yinka Shonibare, it is made up of an array of small canvases, which have Dutch wax fabric prints as their support.
Popular in West Africa since the 1960s when their jazzy colours captured post-independence verve, the Dutch wax prints actually originated in Indonesia. The batik techniques were later industrialised by Dutch colonisers and manufactured in Holland. The British soon copied, then monopolised the process with factories in Manchester employing Asian workers and English designers to produce goods for export to West African markets. The uses of Dutch wax prints therefore invests Shonibare's paintings with historical, cultural and commercial information in addition to their surprising visual qualities.
Isobel Johnstone and Kobena Mercer
- Artwork Details: diameter: 312cm
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- Material description: emulsion and acrylic on textile
- Credit line: © Yinka Shonibare CBE. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021
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- Accession number: ACC49/2003