African designer creates surreal sculptures that have made a splash in the art world

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The British-Nigerian artist creates full-length surreal sculptures, adorned with batik fabrics, whose history is rooted in colonialism. In this way, Yinka is trying to draw public attention to the modern concepts of identity that he has encountered throughout most of his life, trying to integrate into a society that is hostile and wary of blacks.

Yink's work explores issues of race and class through the means of painting, sculpture, photography and film. He is known for his sculptures of headless figures in brightly colored, richly textured costumes that are reminiscent of the British imperial era, although their visual splendor is slowly giving way to themes of colonialism, globalism and identity, to which he approaches with exceptional subtlety. Much of the ambiguity in his work - both festive and critical or satirical - stems from the fact that he spent his formative years between London and Lagos, Nigeria. The art that leads to this is a caustic expression of what it means to live in an emphatically global age.

He was born in London and lived there for only three years before his parents returned to Nigeria, and then he lived in Nigeria until he was seventeen years old. In Nigeria, the future artist experienced a great colonial influence - for example, he went to a Catholic school and studied with Irish nuns, studied English nursery rhymes, and so on.

Then, he had an acute question about the balance of power between the third and first worlds, and also had a desire to go abroad and see what the metropolis looks like. What he actually did in grief, having received a Western education, which became a valuable thing for him.

It was when he came to the UK to go to university that Yinka faced racism he never knew existed. That is why he decided to find his own identity in these relations of power and class inequality, which he had to resist for more than one year.

When he was in art school, he was doing work about the Soviet Union and the political movement he was experiencing at the time, and it was perestroika, and one of his teachers at Goldsmiths told him: And then Yinka thought about it seriously. All his work developed from the posing of this question and the question of how people perceive the world around them and the person in it through various stereotypes.

He then discovered batik fabrics in the Brixton market and learned that they have a very interesting origin: even though they are considered African fabrics in Africa, they are actually Indonesian fabrics that were originally produced by the Dutch for the Indonesian market, but since industrial fabrics are not were popular in Indonesia, they were introduced to the West African market, and over time became the main instrument in Yinki's work, like globes, telescopes and telescopes.

He questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions. His signature fabric is a brightly colored African batik fabric that he buys in London. This type of fabric was inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch, and eventually sold to colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s, this material became a new sign of African identity and independence.

He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004, and was also awarded the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, a title that he added to his professional name. In 2002, Yinka created "Gallantry and Criminal Conversation" - one of his most high-profile and recognized works in the world, which brought him to the international stage.

The man has exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in leading museums in the world. In September 2008, he began his major study at the MCA University of Sydney, and then visited the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and was also elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of London in 2013.

And his work entitled "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle" was exhibited at Trafalgar Square in London from 2010 to 2012. It was the first commissioned by a black British artist and was part of a national fundraising campaign organized by the arts foundation and the National Maritime Museum, which have now successfully acquired the sculpture for permanent display at the museum's new entrance in Greenwich Park, London.

In 2012, the Royal Opera House, London commissioned Globe Head Ballerina (2012) to be shown on the façade of the Royal Opera House overlooking Russell Street in Covent Garden. A life-size ballerina, encased in a giant snow globe, spins slowly, as if trapped in the middle of a dance.

His works are so extraordinary and unique that they deserve special attention and interpretation, causing many statements and reflections about each of them. The artist was awarded a CBE in 2019 and his masterpieces are in renowned international collections including the Tate Collection in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Vandenbrook Foundation in the Netherlands.

The world is full of amazingly talented people whose work has been the focus of attention for many years, discussed daily by critics and art lovers. The work of Remedios Varo was no exception. Her, having become one of the most expensive paintings in the world in recent years.