// © Yinka Shonibare, courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. There are, of course, also physical objects in this show, that more closely resemble the conventional idea of a talisman, juju (as they are known in West Africa), amulet, charm or trinket. It is something that we can meditate upon. “We’re currently experiencing a resurgence of right-wing politics and xenophobia across the globe—we cannot shy away from the historical context of our identities,” Shonibare explains. Shonibare has chosen an impressive line-up of names for Talisman in the Age of Difference; artists whose work also closely connects with his own practice and ideas. Her shoe flies through the air as a symbol of the carefree, facetious lifestyle she lives as a member of the 18th–century French bourgeoisie. To license this video please visit Licensing & Reproduction. Aside from the racial connotations, viewers will find many more details and interpretations to muse over in Shonibare’s installation. By reappropriating the culture of the oppressor to create something that meaningfully represents the past from the perspective of the oppressed, he encourages society to change the way history is understood. Watch now. “The transformation of an everyday material—as evidenced in Leonardo Drew’s reconfiguration of materials into wall-based reliefs within the show—reflects its power to act as a totem or mascot,” Shonibare tells me. In our autumn 2020 issue, we speak with numerous artists about their experiences of optimism, utopia and euphoria, and delve into the mindset that is required simply to create in the first place. Look for the plus icon next to videos throughout the site to add them here. It’s about challenging the western idea of art, including the role of beauty and the purpose for creating. Now streaming, full segments from the new season of Art in the Twenty-First Century, dubbed “the uniformly excellent television series on contemporary art” by the Los Angeles Times. Acting as the protagonist in two photographic series, Shonibare explores personal themes of leisure, excess, mortality, vanity and physical disability. Shonibare’s transformation of “The Swing” functions broadly as a social commentary relevant even today. Specifically, Black people who were ripped from their homes and enslaved based on instructions from people like those portrayed in Fragonard’s original piece. Shonibare’s work is inspirational for reasons that span far beyond his mastery of artistic technique. This is the hover state for the latest issue. Racism still rears its ugly head more often than many would like to acknowledge. {{controller.videos[controller.getVideo(controller.currentVideo)].title}} has ended. Art21 is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization; all donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Nearly 250 years later, Yinka Shonibare articulated this paradox in his 3–dimensional installation titled “The Swing (After Fragonard)." Other choices like the exclusion of the voyeuristic man reveal deeper and meaningful aspects of analysis prevalent in the piece. Five photographs of trans women by the South African artist feature on their own wall, including two portraits of Yaya Mavundla in Parktown, Johannesburg, who now organizes the Mzansi Pride festival in South Africa, and is a promoter of LGBTQI rights in the country. “The work of David Hammons, John Outterbridge and Betye Saar is characterized by the transformation of cultural objects into magical, fetishistic assemblages, whilst the work of Genevieve Gaignard and Deborah Roberts shakes the foundations of tired, long-held beliefs about black identity.”. It’s in Gallery Two that this part of the exhibition really comes to the fore, with a spectacular wall covered with all kinds of materials with a magical presence: peanut butter in William L Pope’s work, cotton mesh and wood in Irvin Pascal’s, John Outterbridge‘s Dancer’s Charm and Betye Saar’s Dervish meet Melvin Edwards’s welded steel. In the Americas and Oceania, tree bark was thought to be able to seduce a woman. The expansive exhibition makes many synaptic connections—in Gallery One, an entire wall is devoted to six works from Whitfield Lovell’s Kin series, his signature Conté crayon portraits assembled with symbolic objects: a wooden clock, a hypodermic needle, a book and plastic wedding figurines, a way to suggest a narrative for his unknown subjects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Four-leaf clovers and horseshoes are also talismans. “All of Western art has influences from many other cultures—Picasso would struggle without Africa,” Shonibare notes. Over the course of his career, the London-based artist Yinka Shonibare CBE has made films, paintings, installations, and drawings that serve as “a critique of Empire” by disrupting notions of identity and culture.