BLACK IN THE PICTURE

Black in The Picture

Black History Month – various – October 2004

Black history, or rather a black perspective of history, has played an important role in the works of British artist Yinka Shonibare. Nominated for this year's Turner Prize, Black History Month perhaps provides a timely coincidence for looking at the way in which history plays a key role in the work of one of Britain's top contemporary artists.

Yinka's thought provoking, characteristically wry, work first gained critical attention not only because of its careful, flawless execution, but because of the clever questions and considerations it posed about history and the history of art. Drawing on his cultural experience as British African, Yinka's work is often concerned with the place of black people and how they were represented –or most frequently not represented- in western art, particularly in painting from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Although this period of history coincides with both height of the slave trade, and the philosophical movements against it, western European painting remained oddly oblivious to the existence of black people except in specific stereotypical depictions. Given that this is also the period when black people were documented as living as part of the commercial, gentrified and consular circles in European cities, it seems odd that so few black people are visible in the typical paintings from these times.

Indeed, it is exactly such questions about "black invisibility", despite documented black urban lives, that Yinka's work brought home. In detailed photographic reproductions -in full costumes, powdered wigs and all- Yinka meticulously recreated paintings typical of that period. And, he literally put himself in the picture. His inclusion, the unfamiliar and jarring presence of a black person within an image denoting that period of European history, was at once a clever means of highlighting the issue.

In more recent year's Yinka has worked within a similar area of concern, but approaching the topic using 3 dimensional sculpture rather than photography. In these works, such as those forming the Double Dutch exhibition, we encounter headless mannequins in elaborate period costume, conjuring up familiar scenes such Fragonard’s “The Swing”, that familiar image that has adorned a thousand biscuit tins and greeting cards, or scenes depicting the life of country gentry. With a difference; the elaborate period costumes are all made out of distinctly “African” Dutch wax prints. Or are they? Distinctly African that is…

The immediate effect of the work is to bring into contrast two “clashing” elements: the familiar groupings and images of European or “western” life and the colours of the prints that are immediately understood as “African”. As with the earlier previous work, the contrast of these elements, rarely seen together, immediately makes us think about the way in which we understand historical images; our picture of history.

But, with Double Dutch, Yinka Shonibare is developing a work relating to a more complex history. The Dutch prints at the core of the work, signifying Africa, are not, in fact African in origin. The fabrics that we now immediately associate with Africa are themselves, in fact, a product of imperialism. Both British and Dutch merchants during the imperialist era were keen to make a profit from their colonies by trading fabrics from their European mills with the local people living in the colonies. It is now understood that these “African” Dutch prints may have come about as a result of Dutch fabric producers finding that the fabrics that they had intended to sell in Indonesia, were not attractive to local people. With the Indonesian tradition of batik, characterized by fine broken lines, these new western fabrics with their harsh angular lines simply did not appeal. Eager to make every penny they could out of the colonies, the response was to take this failed fabric, overprint it with designs thought to be of interest to African people and to re-sell it, instead, in Africa.

In effect, Yinka draws our attention to the way in which European thinking in the colonial era not only made black people absent in its own art, but also has an aesthetic impact on African cultures through it far-reaching initiatives to make money out of the colonies.

If you’re interested in reading more about Yinka Shonibare and his work, why not check out this section of the Digital Art Resource for Education website. And, if you would like to see more images of Yinka’s work, why not take a look at the images on the site of the gallery that represents him, the Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Black History Month

If you are interested in knowing more about what will be happening around the country, which not have a look at the Black History Month website.

Of course, many local events will be taking place in west London so why not follow the links below to see what will be taking place in…

Ealing
Hammersmith & Fulham
Hillingdon

And, a number of leading London institutions will also be running specific events as part of BHM. Here are some of their BHM programmes…

The Tate
The British Museum

For those of you who prefer to find out about some great Black Britons without leaving the comfort of your chair, why not take a look at the 100 Great Black Britons website.

Or take a look at the excellent Moving Here website, the digital project by the Museum of London that charts 200 years of migration to Britain packed full with information, images and interactive fun.