Yinka Shonibare CBE RA | African Library

The African Library (2018)  is considered to be one of the Yinka Shonibare CBE's most significant installations to date.  A major body of work which encapsulates three libraries, was made over a period of several years to address ideas of migration, citizenship and home across three Continents.  The British Library (2014), now held in the permanent collection TATE, The American Library (2018) held in the Rennie Collection and displayed in museums across North America and The African Library - produced for his first Institutional exhibition by Yinka Shonibare CBE to be presented on the Continent at the Norval Foundation Cape Town.

The African Library consists of six thousand books wrapped in Dutch wax print fabric and embossed with the names of the personalities who shaped the formation of Africa in the post colonial period.  Arranged on rows of shelving, the library can be researched in an adjacent study space where viewers can access a microsite, to learn more about the people named in the library and understand their contribution to the formation of the Continent as we know it today.

Shonibare has become known for his work incorporating ‘Dutch wax print’ fabrics across a range of different media. The fabric is sold widely across Africa and in markets elsewhere which cater to the African diaspora, but was originally produced in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. Based on traditional wax-resist fabrics made in Indonesia, nineteenth-century Dutch merchants originally saw an opportunity to mechanise its production for export to the Dutch East Indies. By the 1930s there was a booming trade in West and Central Africa for the ‘wax hollandais’, with designs being adapted to local tastes. Within a short period the imported product became a part of African cultural heritage, with unique designs being commissioned for family celebrations and more public commemorations. By incorporating this fabric into his work, Shonibare highlights the contradictions of colonisation and histories of cultural hybridity, while bringing to the fore questions of cultural appropriation, identity and nationalism.

Following its presentation on the Continent, The African Library has been most recently included in the Artist's major mid career survey at Museum de Moderne, Salzburg in 2021 where it is illustrated in the accompanying publication.

The African Library presents a singular opportunity to acquire a defining work of art history; exploring the complex themes of immigration, national identity and emancipation.  A major installation of this scale is incredibly rare to come to the market, thus presenting an unparalleled occasion to consider it as a cornerstone for a landmark collection.

Access the African Library index and video resource and read about the personalities included in the African Library here.

EXHIBITED

‘Yinka Shonibare CBE: End of Empire’, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, 2021
‘Trade Winds: Yinka Shonibare CBE’, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, 2019
‘Ruins Decorated', Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, 2018