Yinka Shonibare MBE: FABRIC-ATION
21 Sep - 24 Nov 2013
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Food Faerie, 2010, Jonty Wilde, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2013 / Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Autumn at GL STRAND offers one of the absolutely major names on the international contemporary art scene. British-Nigerian Yinka Shonibare is currently arousing the enthusiasm of the public and reviewers in England. Now the Danish public will have a chance to make the acquaintance of the artist’s fascinating universe of headless soldiers and Victorian ballerinas in his first major solo show in Scandinavia.
Over the past 15 years Yinka Shonibare has created an iconic oeuvre of headless mannequins that bring to life famous moments of history and art history. With great commitment and equal degrees of seriousness, wit and humour he has mounted an assault on the colonialism of the Victorian era and its parallels in Thatcher’s Britain. In recent years he has widened the scope of his subjects to include global news, injustices and complications in a true cornucopia of media, for example film, photography, painting, sculpture and installation – all represented in the show at GL STRAND.
FABRIC-ATION mainly gathers works from recent years, as well as a brand new work created for the exhibition, Copenhagen Girl with a Bullet in her Head. The subjects include Admiral Nelson and his key position in British colonialism, the significance of globalization for the formation of modern man’s identity, multiculturalism, global food production and the revolutions of the past few years in the Arab world. In other words, Shonibare is able, through an original and captivating universe, to present us with the huge complexity that defines our time, as well as the underlying history.
The title of the exhibition refers to Shonibare’s use of colourful patterned fabrics in his art; fabrics that are associated with Africa, but which have their origin in Holland and were intended for the Indonesian market, and which, typically for Shonibare, illustrate that things are rarely what they seem at first glance.
Over the past 15 years Yinka Shonibare has created an iconic oeuvre of headless mannequins that bring to life famous moments of history and art history. With great commitment and equal degrees of seriousness, wit and humour he has mounted an assault on the colonialism of the Victorian era and its parallels in Thatcher’s Britain. In recent years he has widened the scope of his subjects to include global news, injustices and complications in a true cornucopia of media, for example film, photography, painting, sculpture and installation – all represented in the show at GL STRAND.
FABRIC-ATION mainly gathers works from recent years, as well as a brand new work created for the exhibition, Copenhagen Girl with a Bullet in her Head. The subjects include Admiral Nelson and his key position in British colonialism, the significance of globalization for the formation of modern man’s identity, multiculturalism, global food production and the revolutions of the past few years in the Arab world. In other words, Shonibare is able, through an original and captivating universe, to present us with the huge complexity that defines our time, as well as the underlying history.
The title of the exhibition refers to Shonibare’s use of colourful patterned fabrics in his art; fabrics that are associated with Africa, but which have their origin in Holland and were intended for the Indonesian market, and which, typically for Shonibare, illustrate that things are rarely what they seem at first glance.