Close-up of End of Empire" a Kinetic Sculpture by Yinka Shonibare, in the Sunley Gallery of the Turner Contemporary, Margate
End of Empire is a work by Yinka Shonibare in the Turner Contemporary's Sunley Galley. It has Fibreglass mannequins, with Dutch wax printed cotton textile, metal, wood, motor, globes and leather. Its a Kinetic Sculpture. In a new commission, Yinka Shonibare MBE, one of the leading artists at work in the UK, explores how the new alliances forged in the First World War changed British society forever and continue to affect us today. Shonibare’s new work features two of his signature figures attired in African fabrics, their globe-heads highlighting the countries involved in WW1. Offering a metaphor for dialogue, balance and conflict, the entire work pivots almost imperceptibly in the gallery space, symbolising the possibility of compromise and resolution between two opposing forces. How has immigration contributed to the British culture in which we live today? How have immigrants shaped what it means to be British? These are the questions Shonibare asks in The British Library, a sculptural work presented alongside End of Empire at Turner Contemporary. Shelves of books, many bearing the name of an immigrant who has enriched our society (from TS Eliot to Zaha Hadid), remind us that the displacement of communities by global war has consequences that inform our lives and attitudes today
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, Kent, CT9 1HG
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: african, close-, contemporary, cotton, dutch, empire, fabrics, fibreglass, galley, immagrants, immagration, kent, kinetic, mannequins, margate, printed, sculpture, shonibare, sunley, textiles, turner, wax, yinka
