Explore the quilted tapestry of Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Earth Pictures’

Yinka Shonibare is presenting only his second gallery show on the African continent, after his Goodman Gallery debut in 2018. The new exhibition, “Earth Pictures”, comprises quilted “tapestry” works, sculptures and prints.

It is timed to coincide with the renowned and respected Shonibare’s first major African museum show outside SA, titled “Safiotra [Hybridités/Hybridities]” and on view at Madagascar’s Fondation H.

In keeping with many of the artist’s key themes and approaches, the show comprises works reflecting on the catastrophic impact of colonialism and post-colonial extractivism on Africa’s natural world.

As he has recently stated in interview, “I deal with post-colonialism in my work and the environmental issue is of course closely related to this… The poorest countries emit the least pollution into the environment and they suffer the consequences disproportionately.”

To express this set of ideas, Shonibare turns to sculptural forms that have become familiar in his oeuvre — the standout work titled “Hybrid Sculpture (Satyr on Stilts)” is a quirky mythological figure at less than life size, set up in the air on towering stilts.

It has an African mask instead of a head and is painted in the ornately patterned style Shonibare often uses in his three-dimensional works, derived from batik and West African fabric patterns. Elsewhere in the show are a series of standalone African masks painted in similar style, which risk the banality of the trope in an “African” context.

Perhaps more successful is the centerpiece group of works on the exhibition, a new series of quilts produced specifically for the show and titled “Nature Works”.

These colourful and intricate works juxtapose deceptively beautiful landscapes and nature studies with the shocking incursions into that landscape that shows the extractivist exploitation going on all over the post-colonial African landscape where minerals and resources are to be found and commodified.

Standouts in the “Nature Works” series depict a copper and cobalt mine in the DRC and a gas flare from mining operations in Nigeria. The tension between the fragile and delicate materiality of these works is in stark contrast to the polluting consequences of extractive processes and the dystopian landscapes they create in their wake.

Alongside this series of works, focused on the brutal realities of extractivist mining operations across Africa, is another sequence of quilts dedicated to wildlife and endangered species on the continent, both flora and fauna.

These range from a depiction of the red colobus monkey, a species facing extinction, to flora also facing ecological erasure and native to Southern Africa, specifically SA’s Northern Cape and Namibia’s arid regions. In this he is of like mind with local artists drawn to similar themes, like Michael MacGarry and Bronwyn Katz.

Shonibare’s work is always accessible and thought-provoking, and he has a major international reputation. With his Anglo-Nigerian background he is well-placed to work through ideas and commentary on the post-colonial relationship between Europe and the African continent.

In 2024, Shonibare presented his first solo exhibition in over 20 years at a London public institution — “Suspended States” — at the Serpentine Gallery.

An edition of his work “Refugee Astronaut” was also included in the main exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

His work is included in collections as diverse and prestigious as the Tate, London; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town and Norval Foundation, Cape Town.

Given his international standing and that this is only his second gallery show in Africa, it was disappointing and puzzling to see a fairly tepid attendance at the show’s opening last week.

It seems Joburgers are suffering in more ways than one but should be taking the opportunity to see art of this calibre when they can.

“Earth Pictures” is on at the Goodman Gallery in Joburg until July 24.