- Date
- 1999
- Maker
- Yinka Shonibare, born 1962, London, United Kingdom
- Label Text
- Shonibare purchases wax print fabric in places like London’s Brixton Market for use in his sculptures and installation pieces. Manufactured using technology imported from Indonesia to English and Dutch companies producing cloth for resale in African markets, these cloths often feature designs celebrating local political, cultural and sports figures. Shonibare sees the cloth as both a potent byproduct of the colonial period and as a vehicle for post-colonial expressions of racial pride and resistance.
- This work is part of a project in which he features well-known Victorian figures as children. It playfully addresses the use of cloth borne of colonial trade as a diasporic identity marker and as a reminder of the imperialist agenda that supported the extravagances and mores of Victorian society. By reducing these famous figures to innocent children playing dress-up atop tables, Shonibare further highlights some of the absurdities of the Victorian culture that gave birth to its accompanying marketplaces and visual imagery.
- Description
- Mannequin of a young girl without a head and dressed in a Victorian style dress made from brightly colored contemporary printed fabric decorated with a soccer ball and flower pattern.
- Exhibition History
- African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (installed May 6, 2014 to September 11, 2015)
- Yinka Shonibare MBE, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, September 24, 2008-February 1, 2009; Brooklyn Museum, June 26-September 20, 2009; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 10, 2009-March 7, 2010
- TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008
- Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, May 9- August 26, 2007; Fowler Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, October 14, 2007-February 17, 2008
- Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002
- Published References
- Kreamer, Christine, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney and Allyson Purpura. 2007. Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution; Milan: 5 Continents Editions, pp. 64-65, no. 4.13.
- Milbourne, Karen E. 2009. Yinka Shonibare MBE. Exhibition brochure. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Shonibare, Yinka. 2008. Yinka Shonibare, MBE. Munich; New York: Prestel, p. 214 (not illustrated).
- Shonibare, Yinka. 2011. Yinka Shonibare MBE: El Futuro del Pasado. Madrid: Comunidad de Madrid, pp. 33, 182.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Geography
- Nigeria
- Topic
- female
- See more items in
- National Museum of African Art Collection
- Credit Line
- Purchased with funds given in memory of Philip L. Ravenhill, the Sylvia H. Williams Memorial Fund for Acquisitions, Frieda B. Rosenthal, Barbara Croissant and Mark E. Baker
- National Museum of African Art
- Object number
- 2000-6-1
- Type
- Sculpture
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © 1999 Yinka Shonibare
- Medium
- Cloth, synthetic fiber, dyes, wood, metal, leather
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 158 x 80 x 85 cm (62 3/16 x 31 1/2 x 33 7/16 in.)
