Yinka Shonibare: Dialogue with the Time

Abstract

London artist and designer Yinka Shonibare (Yoruba) is well known in Europe and America as a master of historical, literary and artistic reminiscences, primarily on the theme of the Victorian era. His interest in the history and culture of Africa and Great Britain (literature, painting, theater, cinema, etc.) determined the main line of his work, which is engaged by the audience and marked a new direction in the development of the contemporary art, conventionally called transvantgardism. The gene substratum of Shonibare’s creative works contains all the richness of world art traditions — from classics to postmodern — and, of course, visual practices of Nigerian ethnics (Igbo and Yoruba).

The installations of Y. Shonibare is considered to be examples of unique beauty and provocation (Black Dandy; headless, but quite recognizable, figures clothed in the “luxuriant batik” invented by the artist). The Master is playing his game with the audience. His works are interactive and need to be decoded. The artist provokes the audience, makes it reflect on the past, present and future, destroy the stereotypes, especially in the field of ethnic and racial relations. The problem of identity — individual and collective — is also in the center of his attention.