Shonibare, MBE, Yinka
Working across painting, photography, film and sculpture, BritishNigerian artist Yinka Shonibare – who describes himself as a ‘postcolonial hybrid’ – explores themes of cultural identity, class and race. In his work, he often makes use of vibrantly coloured wax-print fabric bought in Brixton market, London. This is the case for his mixed-media sculpture The Crowning (2007), which features two life-sized headless mannequins reclining in a colourful tableau. The postures of these figures, and their costumes – emblazoned with the logo of well-known luxury brand Chanel – are modelled on those of a romantic couple in a painting by 18th-century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Lover Crowned (1771–72). Shonibare’s The Crowning offers an oblique but critical commentary on postcolonial identity as well as the wealth and excesses of contemporary and historic aristocratic society.
The Crowning
2007