Yinka Shonibare: End of Empire intervention

“It’s basically two Victorian men both dressed in Victorian costumes made in African textiles and they’ve got globe heads and the globe heads represent the opposing sides in the First World War” – Yinka Shonibare

Commissioned by 14-18 NOW End of Empire depicts two dapper figures with globe heads on a seesaw. They wear suits made of ‘Dutch wax’ textiles: fabric which can tell a story about colonial history, via Indonesian-style batik prints made in Dutch mills and sold to 19th-century Nigeria. The globe heads represent the two ‘sides’ in World War I: the British-French allies versus the Austro-Hungarians and Germans. The coloured textile designs indicate the African lands formerly colonised by the Europeans. The seesaw swings slowly, a symbol of the move towards the ‘end of empire’ of the title.

About the artist

Yinka Shonibare CBE is a British-born Nigerian artist who moved from London to Lagos as a child. He is known for works like Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle (2010, Fourth Plinth) that tackle the themes of globalisation and empire. The use of Dutch wax fabric is a hallmark of Shonibare’s work. Historically produced by Dutch colonisers, the fabric was claimed and repurposed by West Africans.

He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 and became a Royal Academician in 2013. Made an MBE in 2004 and a CBE in 2019, Shonibare wears this title in a self-consciously postcolonial way, stating “I can’t be defined without the British-colonial experience of my birth and background. I don’t exist without it. My biggest preoccupation is with the idea of universal humanism.”

With thanks

Presented by Art Fund and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, to Bristol Museum and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Image: Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery©