Yinka Shonibare is a British-Nigerian artist known for works that explore African identity and the legacy of European colonialism. His art is characterized by the use of "Dutch wax" fabric, which symbolizes the complex interactions between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Many of his sculptures feature headless mannequins dressed in elaborate costumes from the pre-French Revolution era. His works consider themes like the colonial "scramble for Africa", the Age of Enlightenment, and climate change.

1. General
characterist
ics of his
work
Who is Yinka Shonibare?
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Scramble for AfrTichae Age of Enlightenment Globe Children

2. Yinka Shonibare
• British-born Nigerian
artist (b. 1962).
• Works across diverse
artistic media.
• Explores African
contemporary identity
and the legacy of
European colonialism.
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3. General characteristics of his
work
• His art considers social class and
aesthetics.
• It is characterized by the use of
"Dutch wax" fabric.
• Inspired by Indonesian batiks
and produced in Europe for the
West African market in the 19th
and early 20th centuries, this
fabric symbolizes the complex
web of economic and racial
interactions--and
interdependencies--between
Europe, Asia and Africa.
Examples
of «Dutch
Wax» fabric
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4. General characteristics of his
work
• His sculptural works also
often feature headless
mannequins clothed in
elaborate costumes from
the period just before the
French Revolution, when
the European aristocracy
controlled vast wealth, land
and power.
Headless man trying to
drink water (2005)
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5. Scramble for Africa
• The "scramble" for Africa by
leading European and world
powers resulted in the carving
up of the continent,
formalized at the Berlin
Conference of 1884-85.
• Shonibare's work depicts this
historic gathering, showing
various statesmen huddled
around a table with a large
map of Africa, eagerly staking
their claims.
In this interpretation, the
heads of state are
characteristically headless--and
equally mindless in their
hunger for what Belgian King
Leopold II called "a slice of
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6. The Age of Enlightenment--
Adam Smith
• Shonibare suggests through
this work that the
Enlightenment thinkers who
"liberated" reason in the 18th
century conversely founded
the arguments for colonial
conquest and domination in
the 19th century, which took
the "civilizing mission" as their
justification.
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7. Globe Children
• This sculpture explores the theme of
climate change.
• Two children balance precariously on a
globe of the world, which is shaded with
colors that indicate zones of warming or
environmental shift.
• The use of children in place of adults is
quite strategic--suggesting that we are like
children "toying" with the world, unaware
of the full consequences of our actions.
• The globe is literally held "in balance" by
its two young protagonists, yet their fall is
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