artist research | sculpture and fashion/Textiles
Yinka Shonibare brings his cultural heritage into his works. He utilises sculptural skills with his Nigerian heritage of clothing and bright colours to create strong symbols of colonialism.
As part of my approach to my chosen electives through Sculpture and Fashion I draw a strong sense of cultural identity through Irelands history of colonialism and our own much sought after hand made textiles both historically and currently. He explores the effect of slavery on his culture which is another link between Africa and Ireland.
Some of his pieces are quite ROCOCO looking in style from one perspective. To me he is imaging a style of his rich colourful clothing culture and stylising it into the generation of his ancestors that lived through slavery and post slavery. If his ancestors had the choice to clothe themselves is this how they might have styled their clothing. He has uniquely brought the two styles of the era together.