Not
often does a painting leave a grin on your face, and it is even more uncommon
to find that grin still there after you have left the gallery. Yinka
Shonibare’s paintings, however, do exactly that – and, crucially, something
else too. An entire wall inside the gallery has been painted blue with scores of
round paintings hanging, collectively titled Maxa
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black’> (2003). The effect has
a random look like sweets in a glass jar. To the left and right of this wall,
thirty comparable round canvases have been arranged in a large circle. Some of
the paintings, resembling the proverbial icing on the cake, have had their
surfaces painted in bright, impasto acrylic; whilst other surfaces have been
left untouched. This does not, however, make the latter any the less colorful.
Made from stretched Dutch wax textile, these surfaces have animated patterns
that range from abstract images of foliage to other more concrete objects such
as spark plugs, galloping horses, and even the logo for Mercedes Benz. The
Dutch wax textile ground, a signifier of “Africaness” in the West, originated
in Dutch Indonesia, was copied and produced by the English, and then sold to
West Africa where it became a popular everyday item of clothing. There are
obviously a number of issues that arise here, not least the question of
globalization, tradition, identity, and the politics of trade. Nonetheless, it
should be stated clearly from the outset: this is first and foremost about
painting as celebration and sheer, exuberant revelry.
To
mistake this assemblage for an exercise in entertainment, however, whilst there
is unquestionably fun to be had, would be to miss the point. Shonibare’s
paintings also reference their own historical precedents. Contrary to the
grid-like confines of Modernist abstraction, and more recent exercises in an
ideational abbreviated notion of so-called postmodernist abstraction, these
paintings offer a critique of both the solemnity of the former and the
occasional cursory of the latter.
In
another room, Shonibare would appear to have, if not reversed, then
externalized the imagery in the above paintings. In the series Toy Paintings
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black’> (2003), again all
round in shape, plastic figures have been attached in constellations around the
circumference of the painting. The effect is sculptural, gamesome, and
emblematic. Most of the figures have been garnered from mass culture spin-offs:
there is a figure from The Lion King, a Gladiator and a Ronald McDonald. The
figures seem broadly American in their iconography and range from slightly worn
figures to gleaming new items complete with price tag. Mention could be made
here of the use of ‘low’ cultural objects and their employment in ‘high art’
but, again, this goes against the lightness of touch at work here. It also goes
against the pragmatism of some of the paintings. In one, for example, a succession
of blue tractors has been evenly spaced. Given the actual and metaphorical
‘ground’ of these paintings — Dutch wax textile made in Europe and sold in
Africa — there is an allusion to farming, economics, and capital exchange.
Another painting has a sequence of a dozen or so camouflaged military
helicopters attached to it; hovering against the gallery wall, their propellers
create circles outside of the painting’s perimeter circle. Whilst not wanting
to reduce this painting to any one historical event, the recent turmoil in the
Democratic Republic of Congo came to mind, as did the opportunism of selling
military weapons to shore up un-elected dictatorships in otherwise impoverished
countries.
Shonibare’s
work has drew a lot of attention, not least for his phantasmagoric installation
Gallantry and Criminal Conversation (2002) at last year’s Documenta 11. Having
recently produced a broad spectrum of installation-based work, it is easy to
forget that he is also an accomplished painter and that is where his practice
began in the 80s. It is also easy to overlook, in all the theorizing about
postcolonial issues and the politics of identity, the amount of enjoyment and
energetic excitement he can pack into a painting. |
