Yinka Shonibare (review)

YI NKA SH ONI BARE Brent Sikkema Gallery, 1999 L J For t he past t en years, t he quest ioning of an inherit ed European cult ural ident it y t hat has unfolded in t he work of many American art ist s oft en gives t he impression t hat Nort h America is a relat ively special case. The varied roles t hat immigrat ion, diaspora and slavery have played in U.S. hist ory, for example, seem at once t oo rich and loaded wit h port ent t o have been played out in t hose part s of t he world where t he colonizing impulse reigned unfet t ered for cent uries. For bet t er or worse, we can oft en ident ify more closely wit h t he complexes of such Lat in American polyglot cult ures as Brazil and which is imposed upon t he individual from t he out side, and a hist orical proj ect ion, creat ed t o deflect pre-assigned meanings from t heir t arget . On t he one hand, his work appears t o presuppose a world in which cert ain African paradigms out weigh t heir European count erpart s, at least in t he way t hat cult ural const ruct ion are developed t o cont ain t he image of t he 'other.' This explains t he curious j olt of cult ure shock t hat st rikes any f irst t ime viewer of Shonibare's Nuclear Family, a group of four depart ment st ore mannequins dressed in elegant ly t ailored period cost umes t hat have been creat ed form bright ly colored African fabrics. The arrangement of t he f igures reminds us of t he et hnographically st udied groupings of f igures in nat ural hist ory dioramas, wit h t he most obvious difference being t hat t heir st if f poses are t he Vict orian equivalent s of t he crouched or Yinka Shonibare, Diary of a Vict orian Dandy 17:00 hours, 1998, Color photograph 6 x 7.5 ft Cuba, t han wit h t he scrambling of cult ural ident it ies as it exist s in maj or European societ ies t oday. Nevert heless, if Europe is where indust rial-scale slaver was conceived , it is also t he source of most of t he philosophical t ransf ormat ions t hat laid t he groundwork, beginning in t he 960s and cont inuing t hrough t he early 1980s, for how West ern civilizat ion now sees it self. The U.S. debut exhibit ion of Yinka Shonibare in New York, at Brent Sikkema Gallery in May 1999, brought American viewers face t o face wit h an experience of f ragment ed, post -colonial ident it y t hat may resemble our own in some respect s, but left lit t le quest ion as t o who was gazi ng at whom. Shonibare, who was born in London, raised in Nigeria, and now lives in London, builds his art ist ic ident it y out of an ongoing negot iat ion bet ween a cult ural def init ion lumbering post ures adopt ed by simulat ed hunt ers and gat herers. Much crit ical reference has been made t o Shonibare's use of African t ext iles, which on t he face of it are no more 'aut hent ic' t han an American flag manufact ured in China. Al t hough t o t he uneducat ed eye t hey speak of a powerf ul indigenous herit age, most t ext ile designs from West Africa are not only manufact ured in ot her part s of t he world (not ably Indonesia) for sale t o African consumers, but t heir designs are oft en derived from decorat ive mot ifs import ed by Dut ch colonizers as far back as t he 17t h cent ury. This t angled global web of sources and origins, which owes everyt hing t o t he...