Wind Sculpture II (work of art)
Artwork Info
Key Ideas about this Work of Art
- Wind Sculpture II is a 20-foot-tall fiberglass structure meant to look like a piece of Dutch wax print fabric blowing in the wind. It features interlocking yellow, blue, and orange diamonds over a dark blue grid pattern and turquoise bubbles. Its base is thin, giving the structure the illusion of weightlessness and flexibility.
- Originally a product in colonial Dutch Indonesia, the style of fabric was copied by the British and sold to West Africans. Dutch wax fabric eventually became a symbol of African identity despite being a colonial product conceived in the southeast corner of Asia.
- The type of fabric represented by Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculptures is a reference to the combination of cultural identities of the African diaspora (pronounced die-as-por-uh). African diaspora is a term used to describe the worldwide dispersion of people from Africa as a result of the slave trade.
- In addition to using the Dutch wax cloth motif that comes from European colonial activities in Asia and Africa, the sculpture also evokes imagery of a sail on a boat at sea and may represent the exchange of people, goods, and ideas that occurred during diasporic migration. By using this symbol of migration, Shonibare condemns colonialism (when a powerful, richer country takes control of a smaller, less powerful region) and celebrates global diversity.
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Known for his figurative works that use brightly patterned fabric to explore cultural identity, Yinka Shonibare, CBE (born in London to Nigerian parents) here transforms a wisp of cloth into a monumental sculpture. In reference to his use of distinctive textile patterns in all of his work, including his recent Wind Sculptures, Shonibare has said:
“None of us have isolated identities anymore, and that’s a factor of globalization. I suppose I’m a direct product of that. The fabrics I use also look like they could be just African, because they are used a lot there. But what you see on the surface is not really what you always get. The fabric has a complicated history in its trade routes: It was originally designed as an Indonesian fabric, produced by the Dutch, and the British sold it into the African market. It’s a perfect metaphor for multilayered identities. In a way, my sculptures produce this volume. It’s most apparent in Wind Sculptures, which capture the wind to produce something tangible out of the intangible. The shape of the sails capture a moment, like how the headless sculptures portray a larger historical moment. The difference between them is that something as insignificant as a breeze is turned into something monumental, while a historical time period is made universally ambivalent. That’s significant. Ultimately, I’m trying to grasp living with more than one culture in my head.*”
*As quoted in “500 Words: Yinka Shonibare MBE,” Artforum (April 9, 2013) at artforum.com.
tags: culture, environment, force, identity, movement, perception
Additional Resources
Resources for Teachers:
- Watch a video about Shonibare and colonialism.
- Watch a video of the artist talking about his work.
Resources for Students:
- Read more about the artist.
- Learn more about a wax printing technique.
- Watch a video to learn how wax print cloth is made.
- View another Wind Sculpture created by this artist.