Talking Points: Yinka Shonibare
Can we celebrate who we are through pattern and colour?
Yinka Shonibare explores culture and identity through his artwork. He uses colourful patterned fabrics alongside sculpture, photography and painting, bringing together influences from different cultures and histories. His work encourages us to think about the different things that make us who we are.
Watch the videos below and use the following questions to explore the work of Yinka Shonibare.
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Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare is interdisciplinary artist. Within his practice he explored Western art history and literature to question contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation.
Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories. Find out more on his website here.
Watch “Who is Yinka Shonibare” -Tate Kids.
Earth Kids
“The wild is far from unlimited. It is finite. It needs protecting.” – David Attenborough
This series of new sculptures by Shonibare reflect on the connection between the history of colonial domination and humankind’s domination of the natural world and the exploitation of its limited resources.
Questions to Ask Children
In your own words, what do you think that the artist is trying to say through his work?
Do you like the sculptures? Why?
How do the sculptures make you feel?
Wind Sculptures
We can’t see wind, but we do see its effects. Here the dynamic movement of a piece of fabric in a gust of wind is rendered in solid fiberglass at monumental scale.
What we now regard as traditional African cloth is based on Indonesian batik fabric first brought to Africa by Dutch traders in the 1800s. For Shonibare, and for Wind Sculpture, identity is always a richly layered and dynamic set of relationships. – Public Art Fund.
Questions to Ask Children
In your own words what do you think the artist is trying to say with this series?
How does that artwork make you feel?
How do you think the scale of this sculpture impacts the viewer?
What do you like/dislike about the sculpture?
This Talking Points Is Used In...
using sketchbooks to make visual notes
Show me what you see
