Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul
Venice 2024

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Yinka Shonibare CBE RA

Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul, 2024

Clay, MDF, painted bronze

273.9 x 302.7 x 302.7 cm / 107.8 x 119.2 x 119.2 in.

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Commissioned for the Nigerian Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition, “Monument to the Restitution of the Mind and Soul” is a major new work by Yinka Shonibare CBE.

Emmanuel Macron declared in 2017 when visiting Burkina Faso “In the next five years, I want the conditions to be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa”...

Yinka Shonibare CBE explores in this major new work, the debates around restitution, exploring one of the greatest thefts of heritage and memory of a people. The Benin expedition of 1897 led to the looting of thousands of valuable spiritual and cultural artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin. The sheer scale of the theft is impossible to fully recreate. In this work, the artist recreates a small percentage of the stolen artefacts made from clay and displayed on a pyramid structure.

Hidden mongst the objects is the bust of Sir Harry Rawson - one of the military commanders who led the punative expedition of British forces to Benin. Encased in a Vitrine, Rawson is displayed like many of the stolen objects in museum collections across Britain today. Benin objects displayed on the ziggurat include the head of an Oba, currently held in the Royal Collection and an Ivory mask of Idia - the first Queen Mother of 16th C Benin held in the British Museum. The mask was notably used as the emblem of FESTAC 77 Festival Nigeria where a recreation was made after the UK refused the loan request. A cockerel known as “okukur” was taken to Britain and passed privately through collections before being gifted to Jesus College, Cambridge. A student led campaign in 2019 forced the return of the work to Nigeria, making it the first Institution in the world to return a Benin bronze artefact.

Using clay, the artist draws a parallel to African evironmental intelligence and spirituality. While earlier generations have sought to identify African relationships to nature through the lens of primitavism, the artist here suggests the indigenous forms of knowledge which celebrate and achievements of pre colonial African civilisations.

Exhibition History
60th International Venice Biennale | Nigerian Pavilion

Refugee Astronaut, 2024

Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, net, possessions,
astronaut helmet, moon boots and steel baseplate

74 x 37 3/8 x 43 1/4 in.

188 x 95 x 110 cm

Baseplate: 60 x 100 cm (23.6 x 39 inches)

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The initial idea for Refugee Astronaut, born in 2015, stemmed from the concept of space as a possible place of refuge for the human race. The work is a warning, imagining what could happen if we don’t do something about rising water levels and the displacement of people. Economics is based around the idea of growth, but we have finite resources. However, you can’t have endless growth and no impact on the environment. The Refugee Astronaut is the reverse of the colonial instinct of the astronaut, it is a nomadic astronaut trying to find somewhere that is still habitable.

Exhibition History,
60th International Venice Biennale, Foreigners everywhere

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA was born in 1962 in London, England and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. He lives and works in London. Shonibare was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004 and was elected as a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy, London in 2013. He was awarded the decoration of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or MBE in 2004 and Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire or CBE in 2019. Shonibare received the prestigious Art Icon Award from Whitechapel Gallery, London and an honorary degree from The Courtauld Institute, London in 2021.

Shonibare’s practice questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions. His signature material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ Dutch wax batik fabric originally inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold to the colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s the material became a signifier of African identity and independence.

In Spring 2024, Shonibare will have a solo exhibition at Serpentine, London, England. He will also participate in Nigeria’s Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy. The artist’s new public works include two outdoor sculptures. ‘Material (SG) IV’ was unveiled in September 2023 for Frieze Sculpture, and a permanent commission ‘Hibiscus Rising’ was unveiled in Aire Park as part of Leeds 2023. To mark Sharjah Biennial’s 30th anniversary in February 2023, Shonibare was commissioned to create a series of new works for the exhibition. He transformed the Gallery at sketch, London as part of a long-term programme of artist-conceived restaurants, which opened to the public in March 2022.