For thousands of years, artists have incorporated personal experience and understanding into their art to display their meaning of ‘our world.’ With such a broad topic, many artists choose to create their art around personal meaning or connection to an issue in today’s society.
American novelist and painter, Henry Miller stated, “The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe, he/she recreates it out of his/her own experience and understanding of life.” From this, we can gather that the meaning of art is for an artist to create thought-provoking pieces to show a viewer the way they believe the relationship between the …show more content…
At the notion of ‘authentic African’ Shonibare was shocked and attempted to decipher what the tutor had meant when he said this.
The controversial issues between Europe and Africa is what has inspired his artwork ever since to take the idea away from the delusion of ‘authentic’. Distinctively Shonibare uses textiles that are made in Europe based off Indonesian design that were then sold off and became widely popular in African countries. Due to the influx of Africans wearing this material, the patterns of the textiles became immersed in visual culture and, although are not legitimate, have become known as ‘authentic African wear’.
In his sculpture works Shonibare also takes away any real identification of the nationality of his figures. Often adorned in Victorian style clothing made with the ‘African’ textiles, the mannequins are always beheaded with no form of facial identity. Two of his sculptural pieces that reflect his experiences in colonial issues between his nations are ‘The Swing’ and ‘How to blow up two heads at …show more content…
This artwork was made out of two life-sized mannequins, two guns, Dutch wax printed cotton, shoes, and leather riding boots. Colour is prominent on both of the figures dresses, however the figure adorned in yellow and orange has more vibrant colours used while the other has duller greens and reds.
Both figures appear to be female, wearing Victorian styled dresses made with Dutch wax patterns. Once again Shonibare has used this patterning to visual show the falseness of the patterns, as they are ‘authentically’ European.
The figures mirror each other in actions as they aim small, old guns at the others ‘head’, which as in all of Shonibare’s works, is missing. The focal point in this artwork is the intercrossed arms between both figures as they aim their weapons.
The guns can be seen as many different things that evoke questions about the artwork, but mostly around the figures relationship. As the dresses were indicated to before, one has far less patterns and bland colours on her dress, while the other is bright and fully patterned. The figure with the duller dress could however be linked with an actual Victorian dress, which would begin to convey the conflict between Africans and