Yinka Shonibare, The American Library (2018) — Art and Migration Virtual Exhibition Tour

Yinka Shonibare CBE (Born 1962 in London)
The American Library, 2018
Hardback books, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, gold foiled names, and website
Dimensions variable
Rennie Collection, Vancouver

Yinka Shonibare’s practice encompasses the expansive hybridity of our globalized world.

His sculptures and installations focus not on an idyllic representation of post-colonial multiculturalism but on the ambiguities, fissures, and erasures that such narratives reinforce.

The American Library consists of 6,000 volumes wrapped in vibrantly colored Dutch wax-print fabric.

Many are embossed with the names of first- and second-generation immigrants or their descendants or those affected by the Great Migration in the United States.

All those named have made a mark on American culture; these individuals span race, gender, and class, recasting how ideas of otherness, citizenship, home, and nationalism acquire their complex meanings.

Although the library is filled with migrants’ names, it does not take into account Indigenous peoples, ignoring the cultural contributions of the original inhabitants of North America.
The fabric also reflects the complex interactions among cultures. Dutch wax-print fabric was introduced to West Africa in the 1800s through colonial trade.

It was a factory-printed facsimile of cloth from Indonesia, and the fabric has become intimately linked with West African fashion.

It is an important material for Yinka Shonibare, who was born in London and raised in Lagos, Nigeria.

new.artsmia.org/when-home-wont-let-you-stay-art-and-migration/