“Suspended States,” Yinka Shonibare’s current show at the Serpentine and first solo exhibition in London in over 20 years, acts as a potent reminder of the legacies of colonial power, conflict, and displacement. Shonibare rose to prominence in the 1990s with his reimagined historical tableaux calling into question cultural credibility, class, and identity construction, and the satirical, ironic edge of those works carries through in Decolonised Structures (2022–23), a group of transformed and decontextualized public statues. But new installations such as Sanctuary City and The War Library take a different tone, teasing out the paradoxes inherent in today’s pressing global situations—the need for refuge, the ecological impact of colonialism, and the role of past imperialism on attempts at peace—while making the case for dialogue and understanding. Art, at its most effective, intensifies our powers of empathy, and Shonibare’s “Earth Kids,” clad in his signature Dutch wax-print fabric, offer an immediately engaging point of contact through their poetic whimsy. In 2022, to put these messages of connection into real-world practice, Shonibare launched Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.), a nonprofit dedicated to facilitating opportunities for exchange in Nigeria.
Ina Cole: In relation to “Suspended States,” you’ve said, “All boundaries of nationhood are in a
state of suspense.” Why do you feel the issue of boundaries is so pertinent at this particular moment in time?
Yinka Shonibare: Over the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in the far right and the contestation of identities. There’s war in Ukraine and in the Middle East. It’s a time when people are questioning their history and identity. Since the civil rights movement, an awareness of the historical unfairness experienced by various groups has increased. Many minority groups are fighting back and saying, “We deserve to be treated fairly.” That also extends to the rise of nationalism, which is a way of excluding others. All of those boundaries are being questioned. . .
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