Learning Cultures, Not Assuming

This week in class we were required to read 3 different articles.  The one I responded to was the article dealing with Yinka Shonibare: Hendonism, masquerade, carnivalesque and power.  To be honest I didn’t quite make a connection with the other readings, partly because I found myself re-reading the material to try and understand it.  However, in class today during our group discussion I was guided into thinking in a new direction.

My group’s quote that we discussed was “I’ve never actually been to an African village.  I’ve only seen one on tv.”  In my group we discussed that there are many assumptions that peoples make about others.  Shamefully people make assumptions by looking at the skin tone of others, the sound of their voice or accent, and maybe even the kind of clothes they wear.  In this article Shonibare answers the question of what he thinks and African village looks like.  He says he assumes as a Western point of view because he has never actually seen one for himself, so he is forced to make an assumption or his own idea of what he thinks it would look like--which is probably not what it is in reality.

We can only assume what we think about a culture unless we take the time to learn about that culture and understand their ways and their history.  One thing we discussed in our group is how in America specifically and in Iowa even more locally, people from bigger cities in the United States think that we are all farmers and drive tractors to school.  When in all reality the majority of us that live in Iowa are not farmers.  The misconception of this idea is the same thing that is happening to Shonibare.  People misinterpret his works as being “traditional African art” when in all reality he was born in London and moved to Lagos, Nigeria.  Most people just assume because of the color of his skin that he is African, however he spend most of is time in Britain.  Shonibare’s works mostly include issues of race and class through different media that is anything from sculpture to painting or from photography to installation art.

The most important thing we should take from this article and our knowledge of Shonibare’s work is that keeping an open mind about art can open the doors to many things.  The fact that he revolves his work around the issues of race shows me that many people think of him as a “traditional African artist”, which in a way I suppose you could consider him that, but the way he grew up he is much more than that.  His influence with European cultures helps morph him into the person that he is and the art that he makes.  By taking both cultures Shonibare creates pieces that are eye-catching and make you want to understand the person behind the artwork and not just make assumptions on who he is as an artist.