Then And Now

Legendary British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare is breaking boundaries with his fi rst solo exhibition on the continent in 15 years

- Garreth Van Niekerk

Celebrated the world over for his colourful and subversive explorations of colonialism and its legacy, South Africa now gets its turn to explore British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s work as he prepares to open his first solo exhibition in the country on 1 September.

We spoke with Shonibare in his studio in east London, where much of his largescale sculpture and imagery is made. He is in the midst of creating work for Ruins Decorated, his show at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, which explores ‘the inevitable downfall of the Roman Empire, leading us to discover the broken treasures of a bygone age’.

In the exhibition, Shonibare debunks, among others, the myth of classical sculpture originally being white. He takes some of history’s most celebrated icons, many of which were colourfully painted at first, and redecorates them in his signature batik fabric patterns.

The inspired new sculptures shatter the false impression that white skin was the ideal, and places Africa firmly back in the classical canon from which it was excluded by colonialism.

‘I recently made the discovery that classical Roman sculptures weren’t originally white. Then I read about a German art historian who put forward the idea that white marble sculpture was a marker of “high culture”. The white marble sculptures became very desirable after that and were seen as representing the height of Western civilisation.