The British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare was given carte blanche for his first main solo exhibition on the African continent. Safiotra [Hybridities] on the Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, will embrace a number of of Shonibare’s sculptures, reminiscent of Alien Girl on Flying Machine (2011) and Refugee Astronaut X (2024), in addition to a few of his lesser-known quilt works. The principle piece within the present will probably be The African Library (2018), an enormous set up comprising some 6,000 books wrapped in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax materials, which celebrates key figures in postcolonial Africa, reminiscent of Nelson Mandela and Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah.
Along with his work, Shonibare can also be curating a bit of the exhibition that can characteristic work by 19 artists from Africa and its diaspora from the Fondation H assortment, together with El Anatsui, Amina Agueznay, Ibrahim Mahama Billie Zangewa. Shonibare explains that he chosen artists which can be “pushing the boundaries of fabric in artwork”.
Yinka Shonibare’s The African Library (2018) Assortment Fondation H; Madagascar; Avec l’autorisation de !’artiste et Goodman Gallery; Cape City; Johannesburg et Landres © Goodman Gallery
Whereas Shonibare has beforehand proven his work in solo exhibits on the continent, together with at Goodman Gallery’s Johannesburg and Cape City areas, that is the primary time such an expansive physique of labor will probably be offered. “It’s not that I didn’t need to [have an exhibition of this size],” Shonibare says, “it’s simply that I didn’t have the invitation to do this.” He says that “it can be crucial” for him to point out his work on the continent due to his Nigerian heritage.
Shonibare says that round 20 years in the past he was invited by Bisi Silva, the late Nigerian curator and founding father of the Centre for Modern Artwork in Lagos, to offer a chat within the Nigerian metropolis in addition to to placed on an exhibition. However they have been unable to search out “an ample area on the time” to host such a present, Shonibare says.
Nevertheless, since then there was a proliferation of areas throughout the continent. These embrace his very personal Friends Artists Area (G.A.S.) Basis in Lagos, which is collaborating on the exhibition with Fondation H. Shonibare praised Fondation H for being “very robust in supporting artists,” which he says is why this partnership was “a no brainer, actually”. As a part of the collaboration, the Malagasy artist Joey Aresoa will probably be in residency in Lagos later this yr.
• Safiotra [Hybridities], Fondation H, Antananarivo, 11 April-28 February
