Yinka Shonibare CBE RA: End of Empire
12 Oct 2023 - 23 Jun 2024
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am-5pm and selected bank holidays
This large-scale sculpture comments on the balance of power at the outset of the First World War, making a striking visual connection between the conflicts of the West, globalisation and empire.
More info
Commissioned by 14-18 NOW End of Empire depicts two dapper figures with globe heads on a steam-punk seesaw - a symbol of Victorian industrialism. They wear brightly coloured suits made of ‘Dutch wax’ textiles: fabric that tells a story about colonial history, via Indonesian-style batik prints made in Dutch mills and sold to 19th-century Nigeria.
The globe heads represent the two ‘sides’ in the First World War: the British-French allies versus the Austro-Hungarians and Germans. The coloured textile designs indicate the African lands formerly colonised by the Europeans.
The First World War witnessed the disappearance of four once-powerful realms - German, Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian. The seesaw swings slowly, constantly rebalancing - a symbol of the move towards this 'end of empire’.
Find out more
• Yinka Shonibare in Conversation from Arts Council Collection, 2019
• A Tale of Today, Driehaus Museum, 2019
• Portraying the Sordid Shadow of Colonial History from Bloomberg Originals, 2016
About the artist
Yinka Shonibare CBE is a British-born Nigerian artist who moved from London to Lagos as a child. He is known for works that tackle the themes of globalisation and empire. The use of Dutch wax fabric is a hallmark of Shonibare’s work. Historically produced by Dutch colonisers, the fabric was claimed and repurposed by West Africans.
Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004 and became a Royal Academician in 2013. Made an MBE in 2004 and a CBE in 2019, he wears this title in a self-consciously postcolonial way, stating: “I can’t be defined without the British-colonial experience of my birth and background. I don’t exist without it. My biggest preoccupation is with the idea of universal humanism.”
With thanks
Presented by Art Fund and 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, to Bristol Museum and Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Commissioned by 14-18 NOW, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Image credits
Header image: Yinka Shonibare CBE, End of Empire, 2016. Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Turner Contemporary, Margate. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photographer: Stephen White & Co. © Yinka Shonibare CBE.
Artist image: Yinka Shonibare CBE, photographed in his studio, 2022. Image courtesy the artist. Photographer Leon Foggitt, 2022.