19th Century Kid (Queen Victoria)

Object Details

Yinka Shonibare, born 1962, London, United Kingdom

Label Text

Shonibare purchases wax print fabric in places like London’s Brixton Market for use in his sculptures and installation pieces. Manufactured using technology imported from Indonesia to English and Dutch companies producing cloth for resale in African markets, these cloths often feature designs celebrating local political, cultural and sports figures. Shonibare sees the cloth as both a potent byproduct of the colonial period and as a vehicle for post-colonial expressions of racial pride and resistance.

This work is part of a project in which he features well-known Victorian figures as children. It playfully addresses the use of cloth borne of colonial trade as a diasporic identity marker and as a reminder of the imperialist agenda that supported the extravagances and mores of Victorian society. By reducing these famous figures to innocent children playing dress-up atop tables, Shonibare further highlights some of the absurdities of the Victorian culture that gave birth to its accompanying marketplaces and visual imagery.

Description

Mannequin of a young girl without a head and dressed in a Victorian style dress made from brightly colored contemporary printed fabric decorated with a soccer ball and flower pattern.

Exhibition History

African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (installed May 6, 2014 to September 11, 2015)

Yinka Shonibare MBE, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, September 24, 2008-February 1, 2009; Brooklyn Museum, June 26-September 20, 2009; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 10, 2009-March 7, 2010

TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008

Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, May 9- August 26, 2007; Fowler Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, October 14, 2007-February 17, 2008

Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002

Published References

Kreamer, Christine, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney and Allyson Purpura. 2007. Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution; Milan: 5 Continents Editions, pp. 64-65, no. 4.13.

Milbourne, Karen E. 2009. Yinka Shonibare MBE. Exhibition brochure. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Shonibare, Yinka. 2008. Yinka Shonibare, MBE. Munich; New York: Prestel, p. 214 (not illustrated).

Shonibare, Yinka. 2011. Yinka Shonibare MBE: El Futuro del Pasado. Madrid: Comunidad de Madrid, pp. 33, 182.

Content Statement

As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.

Image Requests

High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Credit Line

Purchased with funds given in memory of Philip L. Ravenhill, the Sylvia H. Williams Memorial Fund for Acquisitions, Frieda B. Rosenthal, Barbara Croissant and Mark E. Baker

1999

Object number

2000-6-1

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© 1999 Yinka Shonibare

Type

Sculpture

Medium

Cloth, synthetic fiber, dyes, wood, metal, leather

Dimensions

H x W x D: 158 x 80 x 85 cm (62 3/16 x 31 1/2 x 33 7/16 in.)

Geography

Nigeria

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

National Museum of African Art

Topic

female

Record ID

nmafa_2000-6-1

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys75bf569b0-5a60-45f0-a370-3b9ed33e5699