Yinka Shonibare MBE

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai, Yinka Shonibare, MBE 个展 2008 年9 月11 日至11 月8 日

开幕酒会9 月11 日 晚上6 点至8 点James Cohan Gallery 很荣幸的宣布举办Yinka Shonibare, MBE 个展。自7 月开幕以来， 此次个展 将是在James Cohan Gallery Shanghai 新空间的第二个 展览。展出的是Shonibare 创作于2004 年至2008 年间摄影和雕塑作品， 这些作品描述了在殖民 主义的推动下而导致的权利和地位的斗争。

这五张色彩浓郁的摄影作品是根据Francisco de Goya y Lucientes 的同名版画创作的。Shonibare 重新改造了Goya 原来作品表现出来 的针对不合理的行为的警告 详细描述了其中的人物特征， 作品中的五个人物代表了世界五大洲。每个人物都穿着维多利亚式的服装，这些服装，很多人认为都是原产于非洲的纺织品。其实，这些布料原来是由荷兰出口到非洲的，但是后来就被公认为是非洲本土的产品。与摄影作品一起展出的是雕塑作品Immanuel Kant (2008)，作品呈现了 在启蒙阶段后被截肢的哲学家，虚构的画面说明了当知识分子对征服欲产生破坏性的欲 望时就会变成一个累赘。

Shonibare 早期的作品有Eleanor Hewitt (2005), 作品展现了一位出生于19 世纪的美国收藏家 顽皮的站立于高脚柱的顶端以此来展 现她高尚的品味和冒险的精神。同时展出的还有2005 年油画系列中的Toy Paintings 作品以及电影作品Odile 和Odette(2005)，片中有一 黑一白两位芭蕾舞演员正跳着天鹅湖，作者将她们用镜子隔开从而表达了现实与映像，意识 与无意识之间的相互影响。

Yinka Shonibare，MBE是一个画家，摄影家，电影制作人也是雕塑家。他作品的风格既受到尼日 利亚文化的影响，也受到了英国文化的影响。The Hayward Flag Project （2007, The Hayward Gallery, London, Le jardin d'amour (2007, Musée de quai Branly, Pairs)和Scratch the Surface (2007, National Portrait Gallery, London) 都曾举办过Shonibare 的个展。在2008 年澳大利亚悉尼 Museumof Contemporary Art 将有他的作品回顾展，2009 年这些作品将在Brooklyn Museum 展出。2004 著名的Turner Prize，他被列入了候选人名单中。2005 年他被选为英国皇室成员的 称号。2007 年第52 届威尼斯双年展上，他的作品被入选参加坐落 于伦敦特拉法尔加广场 Trafalgar Square)的第四基柱方案(Fourth Plinth)，届时将作为两个公众作品中的 其中一个被 展出。

James Cohan Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Yinka Shonibare, MBE. This will be the second exhibition in the gallery's Shanghai space since its opening in July 2008. In this exhibition, Shonibare's photographs and sculptures dating from 2005 through 2008 address the colonialist impulse and the struggles with power and identity that result from it.

On view will be the photograph, La Méduse (2008),which recalls the French ship that was wrecked off of the coast of Senegal in 1819 as it was on its way to retake possession of the African land from the British. Shonibare's ship is depicted in the moment just before its demise, and the artist uses the frigate's precarious state to hint at the world's present vulnerabilities. Also presented will be the 2008 series The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. The five richly-hued photographs are based on Francisco de Goya y Lucientes's etching of the same name. Shonibare has reworked Goya's original warning against irrational behavior and expanded its reach, depicting figures who together represent five of the world's continents. Each figure is outfitted in Victorian-style garments made from what we have come to recognize as African textiles—in fact, cloth that was originally imported by the Dutch to Africa but which has become so closely associated with the continent that it is assumed to be indigenous. Accompanying the photos will be Immanuel Kant (2008), sculpted after the Age of Enlightenment philosopher and presented with amputated legs - a fictional disability suggesting that intelligence can be a hindrance when it creates a damaging thirst for conquest.

Earlier works by Shonibare will include Eleanor Hewitt (2005), a sculpture of the American collector born in the 19th century who is playfully perched atop stilts to indicate her elevated taste and adventurous spirit, as well as several of Shonibare's Toy Paintings from his 2005 series. Also shown will be the film Odile and Odette (2005), in which two ballerinas - one black , one white - dance the Swan Lake roles, separated by a mirror to indicate the interplay between reality and reflection, conscious and unconscious.

Yinka Shonibare, MBE (b.1962) is a painter, photographer, filmmaker, and installation artist whose work is influenced by the culture of Nigeria, where he grew up, and England, where he studied and now lives. Shonibare's recent solo exhibitions include The Hayward Flag Project (2007, The Hayward Gallery, London), Le jardin d'amour (2007, Musée de quai Branly, Paris), and Scratch the Surface (2007, National Gallery, London). He is the subject of a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia (September 2008), traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, New York, and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in 2009.. The artist was shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2004, and he was awarded the title of Member of the British Empire in 2005. His work was included in the African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. The artist's proposal for the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square was recently selected as one of two public works to be realized on the site.