Hybrid sculpture (Sphinx)
(2021)

• Yinka SHONIBARE

Playfully describing this body of work as ‘Picasso in reverse’, Yinka Shonibare explores the complex relationship between African aesthetics and Western modernist expression, juxtaposing classical sculpture from European antiquity with African artefacts from Pablo Picasso’s collection. The resulting polymorph, which combines the British Museum’s Roman Sphinx with a Bamana people’s hyena mask, reflects on the constructed nature of identity while pointing to the objectification of African culture in Western societies. By covering the sphinx batik designs, often mistaken as being ‘traditionally African’, Shonibare alludes to the decoration of Greek sculptures as a metaphor for historical whitewashing. Indonesian batik patterns and techniques were likely introduced to West Africa under Dutch colonial influence.