Homeless Child 3

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Homeless Child 3

Artist Yinka Shonibare British-Nigerian, born 1962

Date2012

DimensionsH: 106 1/16 in.; W: 25 3/16 in.; Depth: 39 1/8 in.

MediumMannequin, Dutch wax-printed textile, fiberglass, globe head, steel base plate, leather suitcases

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

2013.32

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Exhibition HistoryMontreal, Canada, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, "Yinka Shonibare," April 27 - September 20, 2015.

Montreal, Canada, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Yinka Shonibare MBE: Pieces de resistance, April 27-September 20, 2015.

Comparative ReferencesSee also “Yinka Shonibare MBE,” ArtForum, as told to Ashitha Nagesh by Yinka Shonibare MBE, April 9, 2013.

See also Spring, Chris, “Yinka Shonibare MBE,” Angaza Afrika: African Art Now, London, Laurence King Pub., 2008.

Label TextBorn in London to Nigerian parents, Yinka Shonibare explores through parody and irony questions of identity, social hierarchy, and the colonization of Africa. The wax-print fabrics Shonibare uses for many of his works are made with an Indonesian technique, manufactured in England and Holland, and exported to Africa. For Shonibare, this fabric—wrongly commercialized as African—is a comment on globalization and the meaning of authenticity. Bent over, struggling to move forward, this Homeless Child of ambiguous race carries the last of his possessions. His head is a globe inscribed with an excerpt from Dickens’ Oliver Twist: “Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world.” Despite the Colonial costume, the figure addresses dislocation and poverty throughout history, but also resonates with recent and current migrant crises.