theEYE: Yinka Shonibare

Overview

Yinka Shonibare is a painter, photographer and installation artist, whose art is influenced by both the cultures of Nigeria, where he grew up, and Britain, where he studied and now lives. He has exhibited widely all over the world, and this film profile includes exhibitions filmed in London, Rotterdam and Stockholm. His paintings and his sculptural installations make extensive use of dyed fabrics, which became popular in West Africa after independence. But many of these textiles betray Indonesian influences, are manufactured in Holland and are purchased by the artist in Brixton in south London. The complexities of nationality and identity, of history and ethnicity, post-colonialism and today's global economy, form the intellectual and aesthetic arena in which Shonibare works His works have a strongly contemporary feel, but at the same time they engage with the traditions and masterworks of western art history. The results are witty and playful, sensuous and poetic.