Suspended States: Power, History, and Identity
Exploring Safe Havens, Public Statues, Environmental Impacts, and the Legacy of Imperialism
Wandering into the Serpentine after a lovely walk in Hyde Park on a warm, sunny day brings particular joy. The gallery visit is a beautiful respite after being immersed in the park's greenery and serenaded by the birds chirping.
Seeing what is on show at the Serpentine is always a surprise. However, this time, I went in knowing exactly what to expect. My friend Rania told me about it, which added to the excitement of my visit: Yinka Shonibare!
Yinka Shonibare is a prominent British-Nigerian artist known for exploring colonialism, post-colonialism, race, class, and cultural identity through various media, including sculpture, painting, photography, and installation. A key feature of his work is the use of Dutch wax fabrics, which he employs to create intricate, colourful pieces that often feature headless figures dressed in Victorian attire. These figures symbolise the loss of identity under colonial rule. Shonibare's notable works include "Scramble for Africa" and "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle," which challenge historical narratives from a post-colonial perspective. Recognised with numerous awards, including an MBE, Shonibare's art critically engages with themes of power, hybridity, and the complexities of cultural identity.
Dutch wax fabrics, also known as African wax prints or Ankara, are characterised by their vibrant colours and bold patterns. These beautiful fabrics originated from the Indonesian batik technique but were first mass-produced in the Netherlands and later by British manufacturers in Manchester in the 19th century. While initially unsuccessful in Indonesia, these fabrics were popular in West Africa, where they were embraced and integrated into local fashion and culture. The wax-resist dyeing technique used to create these fabrics results in unique, colourful designs that have become a significant part of African identity and expression.
For Shonibare, the fabrics symbolise the inauthenticity and complexity of culture and identity in a globalised capitalist world.
"Suspended States" is the artist's first solo exhibition in London in over 20 years. It features new works examining how power systems influence safe havens, discussions about public statues, colonisation's environmental effects, and imperialism's lasting impact on conflict and subsequent peace efforts. The exhibition showcases his trademark dissonance by exhibiting public figures of the past in colourful African prints. It emphasises that things are never so simple and urges us to rethink what matters and where in world history.
His use of traditional materials explores the complexities and inequities of colonial history and its legacies in the present, including the refugee crisis and climate change.
The exhibition opens with Wind Sculpture IV, a bronze structure beautifully crafted to resemble an airy piece of colourful fabric. Other works are not as light as this; they come with a weighty and contested subject matter.
In the Decolonised Structures section, we see smaller-sized icons of Britain's imperial past draped in symbolic fabrics. Seeing the statues all gathered in one room gives a sense of accessibility. Some statues were familiar to me, but others were a mystery. One of the figures depicted is Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, who was centre stage riding his horse, preceding even Queen Victoria. As it turns out, he is a celebrated Victorian general born in India. His career began during the 1857 Indian Rebellion, which took him to Afghanistan and the Boer War. He is a colonial icon from a bygone era that has largely been forgotten.
Moving from the Declonised Structures, I went into The War Library. It is an intriguing series of installations where the artist fills bookshelves with Deutch wax fabrics covered in bespoke volumes. This extensive collection covers human warfare throughout history, ranging from ancient conflicts like the Byzantine Civil War to more modern ones such as the Second Anglo-Mysore War and the Parthian War of Caracalla. The arrangement of these wars is not based on any chronological or geographical hierarchy; I did find a book on the Taif Accords that ended the Lebanese Civil War.
According to the artist Yinka Shonibare, this installation is "an archive of human failure," reminding us of how little we've learned despite the countless accounts of conflict. Using material often used to clothe bodies subtly hints at the inevitable human cost of war.
The final section of the exhibition is Sanctuary City. It is a moving ensemble of architectural models decorated in batik and lit from within against the dark room. It features models of buildings that have, over millennia, provided sanctuary for refugees or the underprivileged, including the United Nations building in New York, the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda, the Theseum in Athens, and – pointedly, ironically – the notorious Bibby Stockholm, a hulking reminder of Britain's cold comfort for the asylum seekers who are sent there.
Although the exhibition's theme is weighty, Shonibare's cheerful satirical recreation of public statues allows you to engage with history with a lighter vision.