For Yinka Shonibare’s second solo exhibition in Africa and his first on the continent in fifteen years, the British-Nigerian artist presents ‘Ruins Decorated’ – a new body of work which sparks a state of charged curiosity.
Can an historically dominant culture ever empathise with another culture?
What happens then when former subjects of the British Empire become cultural hybrids themselves?
To what culture do they show allegiance?
Can the hybridisation of icons of power be the solution to breaking down binaries required by dictatorship and prejudice?
Through beguiling sculptures, staged photographs and paintings, film and installation, Shonibare considers narratives of power and reinvention in relation to the rise and fall of western empires and the struggles for African Independence.
(Text courtesy of Goodman Gallery)
