ART-PRESENTATION:Yinka Shonibare MBE

The work of Yinka Shonibar MBE, that we have viewed in Greece, some years ago in DESTE Foundation, is progressing through sculpture, installations and photography and is presented in a large solo exhibition, for the first time in Canada, at the DHC/ART Foundation, entitled “Pièces de résistance”, as an extensive reference to his visual thinking.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art Archive

Shonibare has become known worldwide for his use of Dutch-wax fabric as a conceptual and formal device in all of his work. While stereotypically associated with Africa, the origins of Dutch-wax fabric are actually found in Indonesian batik techniques. With its mixed and mistaken provenances, Dutch-wax fabric provides a sumptuous yet probing vehicle to evoke the complexity of concepts such as identity, authenticity, ethnicity, representation, hybridity, race, class, migration, globalization, and power. Yinka Shonibare MBE employs a multiplicity of strategies, including auto-ethnography and humour in combination with art historical and literary references, to deliver a body of work that is simultaneously seductive and subversive. His critical reflection on power relations between Africa and Europe is delivered through a formal treatment that is both lavish and decadent. In a related area of investigation, he reveals his affection and respect for British culture and institutions since he was born in London of Nigerian heritage, Shonibare moved to Lagos, Nigeria with his family at age three, returning to Britain later to study art. While simultaneously questioning class and privilege. It is this ambivalence that most productively unsettles simple binaries and reveals the intricacies involved in negotiating his subject matter.

Info: “Pièces de résistance”, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, 451 & 465, Saint-Jean Street, Montreal, Διάρκεια: 29/4-20/9/15, Λειτουργία: Τετ-Παρ: 12:00-19:00, Σαβ-Κυρ: 11:00-18:00, http://dhc-art.org