Yinka Shonibare, MBE
'A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child and Other Astonishing Works'

14 March – 21 June 2009
SBMA - Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California


Victorian era dresses made from atypical fabrics and the cultural myths of colonialism

Yinka Shonibare's first solo exhibition in the western United States opened at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California featuring an idyllic family riding human-powered flying machines modeled after 19th century drawings, alluding to the continual freedom sought by emigrants and tourists alike.

The Britain born (1962, London) to Nigerian parents focuses in his sculptural installations on the contrast of African and European imagery and convention, especially the cultural myths and misinterpretations of colonialism.

Yinka Shonibare is known for using Victorian era dresses made from atypical fabrics. The brightly colored, wax-printed cloths are African batiks which he gets on a market in London. In his beautifully looking installations, the artist stimulates playfully the debate about culture by using textiles strongly associated with Africa yet originally produced in Europe and sold to Africans by Dutch traders in the 19th century.

fig.: A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child, 2008 (detail)

Check out more about the accompanying lectures on sbma.net; to name a few:

• 13 May 'Cloth and Cultural Identity in the Art of Yinka Shonibare'
• 20 May 'The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art'
• 27 May 'Slave to Fashion: Yinka Shonibare and Printed Textile History Concerning the significant role colonial markets played in the historical development of printed textiles throughout Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere.'

About the artist
Yinka Shonibare, MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire), studied Fine Art, first at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, and then at Goldsmiths College, London, where he received his MA. In 2004, Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize. In 2005, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Since around 12 years his work travels to museums and galleries around the whole world. Recently, a solo exibition was organised at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. It will travel to the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York (26 June until 20 Sept 2009); from 11 Nov 2009 - 7 March 2010 Yinka Shonibare's work will be exhibited at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC fashionoffice.org/culture/2008/yinkashonibare9-2008.htm.

'The sleep of reason produces monsters'
Video: Interview with the artist Yinka Shonibare by Nicole Davis on occasion of the exhibition Yinka Shonibare "Prospero's Monsters" (inspired by William Shakespeare's "The Tempest") at the James Cohan Gallery, New York City in April 2008. Music by Jordan Galland. Video by ARTNET TV www.artnet.com youtube.com/user/artnet2007. Yinka Shonibare speaks about the fabrics he is using and the link to Diaspora.

Shakespeare fan Yinka Shonibare about Good, Evil and Beauty
Check out another interesting video-interview with Yinka Shonibare about his 'Flower Time' exhibition at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London by BBC youtube.com/watch?v=meJHtd5wCBg. The accompanying article by Francesca Gavin from 4 January 2007 is published on bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A18601940.


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fig.: A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child, 2008 (detail)