Yinka Shonibare, MBE

On the one hand, the masquerade is about ambiguity, but on the other hand-and you could take the masquerade festivals in Venice and Brazil as examples-it involves a moment when the working classes could play at being members of the aristocracy for a day, and vice versa. We’re talking about power within society, relations of power.

As a black person in this context, I can create fantasies of empowerment in relation to white society, even if historically that equilibrium or equality really hasn’t arrived yet. It’s like the carnival itself, where a working-class person can occupy the position of master. . . . So the carnival in this sense is a metaphor for the way that transformation can take place.

This is something that art is able to do quite well, because it’s a space of transformation, where you can go beyond the ordinary. -Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare combines elements from both of his home cultures, Britain and Nigeria, to reflect complex historical relationships and his own dual identity. In Un Ballo in Maschera (Courtiers V), the style of the costumes is 18th-century European, but they are fabricated from cloth now associated with African culture, while the cloth itself incorporates contemporary European commercial images (a Chanel logo, for example). This brightly patterned “Dutch-wax fabric” was originally produced in Holland to imitate Indonesian batik imported from the Dutch colonies. Later manufactured by English textile companies for the West African market, it was adopted as a symbol of “authentic” African culture and identity both in Africa and for the African diaspora.

This sculpture is related to a larger project, Shonibare’s sumptuous film Un Ballo in Maschera, 2004, in which these and other of his costumes were worn by a group of 30 dancers. The film’s title, which translates as “A Masked Ball,” is borrowed from Giuseppe Verdi’s 1859 opera, which deals with masking and mistaken identities both in private life and politics. Verdi based his opera on the events surrounding the 1792 assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden at a masquerade ball. King Gustav was a controversial figure who gave generously to the arts while his country endured extreme poverty.

In "Un Ballo in Maschera (Courtiers V), Yinka Shonibare ocmbines elements from both of his home cultures, Britain and Nigeria, to reflect complex historical relationships and his own dual identity. The style of the costumes is 18th-century European, but they are fabricated from cloth associated with African culture, while the cloth itself incorporates contemporary European commerical images. This brightly patterned "Dutch-wax fabric" was originally produced in Holland to imitate Indonesian batik imported from teh Dutch colonies. Later manufactured by English textile companies for the West African market, it was adopted as a symbol of authentic African culture and identity both in Africa and for the African diaspora.

This sculpture is related to a larger project, Shonibare's film Un Ballo in Maschera*, 2004, in which these and other of his costumes were worn by a group of 30 dancers. The film's title, meaning "A Masked Ball," is borrowed from Giuseppe Verdi's 1859 opera of the same name. Verid based his opera on teh events surrounding the 1792 assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden at a masquerade ball. King Gustav is a controversial figure in the history of arts patronage, giving generously to the arts while his country endured extreme poverty. Shonibare's sumptuous dance film offers a stylized performance of the assassination as a repeating cycle of power, frivolity, and revenge.