Shonibare employs a wide range of media sculpture, painting,
photography, video, and installation pieces to explore
matters of race, class, cultural identity, and history. The artist is
best-known for his use of a Dutch-wax fabric, which, though
labeled as African, actually originated in Dutch Indonesia and
was introduced to Africa by British manufacturers via Dutch
colonizers in the nineteenth century. Incorporating the fabric
into Victorian dresses, covering sculptures of alien figures with
it or stretching it onto canvases, Shonibare uses the fabric as a
metaphor to address issues of origin and authenticity.
Published as a companion to Shonibare s first retrospective at
the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, and the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, this survey explores all
aspects of Shonibare s work, offering a fully comprehensive
portrait of his projects. Whether he is lampooning Victorian
propriety or commenting on the latent ambiguities of the term
alien, Shonibare makes art that challenges straightforward
interpretations. Essays by Rachel Kent and Robert Hobbs,
together with a generous selection of color illustrations
explore this talented young artist s work.
photography, video, and installation pieces to explore
matters of race, class, cultural identity, and history. The artist is
best-known for his use of a Dutch-wax fabric, which, though
labeled as African, actually originated in Dutch Indonesia and
was introduced to Africa by British manufacturers via Dutch
colonizers in the nineteenth century. Incorporating the fabric
into Victorian dresses, covering sculptures of alien figures with
it or stretching it onto canvases, Shonibare uses the fabric as a
metaphor to address issues of origin and authenticity.
Published as a companion to Shonibare s first retrospective at
the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, and the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, this survey explores all
aspects of Shonibare s work, offering a fully comprehensive
portrait of his projects. Whether he is lampooning Victorian
propriety or commenting on the latent ambiguities of the term
alien, Shonibare makes art that challenges straightforward
interpretations. Essays by Rachel Kent and Robert Hobbs,
together with a generous selection of color illustrations
explore this talented young artist s work.
