but is it (contemporary African) art?

I found this to be interesting article on Yinka Shonibare, if only because it inadvertently hints at a European obsession with whitewashing any African protestation of the colonial status quo.

This is not exactly the writer’s take on what’s going on. Here is how she talks about the problematic of a hybrid African identity that marks Shonibare’s work – even, guarantees its success in Europe.

In many ways, the stories around colonialism, African culture and history have not yet washed over sufficiently to give space for African art which can talk of the present.

Shonibare still lies undeniably attached to the stereotypes of African art by discussing African issues.

Indeed, the circle is vicious; there is no way in which his art could be significant if it was not somehow about African colonial history.

The irony lies not only in his work, but also in the situation. A state of affairs in which Shonibare’s willingness to speak of African identity and colonial history is informed by the knowledge that we would not take notice of his art if it did not touch on these themes.

Ambivalently, we continue to foster and assert myths of what African art is. We are lured to images of war, darkness and disaster and to a discussion of the colonial past.

And finally,

One can only hope that Shonibare’s works and his reception will have the capacity to activate a dialogue on our shared past and future, eventually allowing us to move beyond a discussion of an imagined Africa to a contemporary one.

To begin with I believe the question of what contemporary African art is, is a problematic one.

What the framing of the question does is it serves to presume an authority about “what the art is” and “what it is not”; even, “what the artist is” and “what he is not.”

We are told that Shonibare is a “hybrid identity”. He is like Jamaican-born hybrid Naipaul. He “carries the history of colonialism in his work and biography” – and as evidence of this the author quotes the only line in the entire article by the artist – “My work is about colonialism, about my own colonial background.” And that’s the first and last we hear from him.

All other quotes about hybrid identity are in fact from Naipaul – to whom the artist has been likened by the author.

“the stories around colonialism…have not yet washed over sufficiently to give space for African art which can talk of the present”

This presumes that “contemporary” African art is what we must all make space for. And in order for space to be made for contemporary African art, we all need to “get over” our colonial baggage – get over the stories we have and get over African culture and history. We must forget, it seems. The contemporary has no space for the past; or what is indigenous anymore.

“there is no way in which his art could be significant if it was not somehow about African colonial history”

This according to the writer is a kind of tragic “irony”. Shonibare’s work is trapped. In order to be successful works of art, they must (regrettably) regress into telling those stories of colonialism.

But Shonibare himself is also trapped, according to the author. He is caught up in a -

“state of affairs in which (his) willingness to speak of African identity and colonial history is informed by the knowledge that we would not take notice of his art if it did not touch on these themes.”

hmm. So the social production of art is part of a system that reproduces  false value; but when the artist dares to consciously subvert this  system by giving us what ‘we’ want (albeit not what ‘we’ need), then he too is just a victim of reproducing notions of an “imagined Africa”.

Shonibare is not really a contemporary African artist. Maybe one day he will be; but not yet.

Ja, right!

Maybe Shonibare is “caught up”, trapped and chained… the truth is I know very little about him or his work. He certainly seems to be ‘successful’ at working a select art gallery circuit – and making it work for him.

Something about his headless colonial figures made me sit up though. And after reading this article I am, ironically, slightly more interested in what he will do and especially, how he will be received, in years to come.

PIC: Reverend on Ice, 2005, by Yinka Shonibare
Life-size fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax-printed cotton, steel