Image
Yinka Shonibare, MBE
Description
Maker
- Yinka Shonibare, MBE, b.1962, British
Title
Year
Medium
Materials/Techniques
Dimensions
-
Overall: 170.2 x 304.8 x 182.9 cm (67 x 120 x 72 inches)
Type
Credit
-
Richard Brown Baker Fund for Contemporary British Art
Object Number
-
2005.52
About
Yinka Shonibare’s sculptural figures combine late 1700s European-style clothing silhouettes with colorful cloth associated with Africa and patterned with a Chanel-inspired logo. Originally worn by dancers in Shonibare’s lavish film Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball), a provocative reimagining of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1859 opera
of the same name, the costumes embody themes of masking and mistaken identities as well as histories of cross-cultural encounters, trade, and hybridity. Although
wax-print fabrics are now internationally recognized symbols of west and east African fashion and culture, they have a rich multicultural history that stretches from
Indonesian batiks and Indian cotton textiles to European and African-designed versions of the same.