Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
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Yinka Shonibare in conversation with Emily Zobel Marshall: identity, history and honouring the legacy of David Oluwale
Last week we had the great pleasure of welcoming Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare to the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett University, at least in a virtual sense.
Yinka has had a long and illustrious career, with a nomination for the Turner Prize in 2004, and works in notable museum collections internationally, including the Tate Collection, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands, as well as many others.
As well as being a highly respected artist, Yinka’s work addressing identity and colonialism made him an ideal focus for our Black History Month calendar.
Examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his work comments on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories. His signature use of Dutch Wax fabric makes many of his pieces instantly recognisable as iconic elements of his catalogue.
In our conversation, Yinka explained about how he began using this fabric in his work a symbol of cultural hybridity: “I was born in London, and when I moved back to London from Nigeria I realised that, if you are a Black person, there are always questions about your identity.
“So, I was making work abut global issues, and I felt that I was entitled to make work about anything and one of my tutors said to me, ‘Well you’re of African origin aren’t you? Why aren’t you producing authentic African art?’
“I went to Brixton market and started asking them about the fabrics in the fabric shop. I had imagined the fabrics were ‘authentic African textiles’, I didn’t realise the fabrics were [originally] Indonesian inspired fabrics produced by the Dutch and then sold to the West African markets.
“But the fabrics are now made in Africa and in China, so I found the colonial origins very interesting, the relationship between Indonesia and Holland, and so the fabrics became a metaphor for the relationship between Africa and Europe.
“And, of course, these fabrics became a sign of African empowerment and independence, and that Africans have taken on the fabrics and made the fabrics their own.”
Speaking of his approach to identity in his work, Yinka said: “It’s somewhat essentialist to put people in singular boxes, and I’m afraid that is actually the origin of fascism - when you essentialise and put people in fixed boxes.
We live fluid lives and we have varied experiences. And after all the nation state is a relatively modern phenomenon. So, I don’t subscribe to the idea of the notion of pure blood. I think that we have to embrace that hybridity and accept the fact that we live in a society where most of our identities are hyphenated identities – British-Nigerian, Italian-American and so on.”
His current work commemorating the life of Nigerian migrant David Oluwale, who died as a result of police harassment in 1969, also offers a point of reflection on the discrimination and persecution of Black people in recent history.
Yinka said: “David Oluwale was a man who came from Nigeria, and he travelled in the 1940s. He subsequently ended up in jail because of the way he came to the UK, stowed away on a ship. When he left jail, he did various odd jobs and unfortunately ended up in contact with the police, and was abused and ended up in jail again.
“He then developed mental health problems, and he was homeless after he left hospital. He had been in hospital for several years, and he was constantly taunted and harassed by the police until he was eventually, and unfortunately, beaten up and his body was found in the River Aire.
“It was a terrible thing that happened to him, but most of it happened because of his race. And that was the really shocking thing. When I was asked to make a memorial to him, I felt honoured to be asked to do that. I also see David Oluwale as a symbol of social justice, so it was not just a man that was bullied and killed, I saw him as a lesson for us to make the world a better place.
“It’s a huge responsibility, one which I don’t underestimate, and I take very seriously. But at the same time I don’t want to produce something that is divisive. I want to produce something that will bring people together, and I think we can find ways to right the wrongs of the past.”
The sculpture created by Yinka will stand in a park near the River Aire, and he hopes this will become a place for people to reflect on the life of David Oluwale.
He said: “I hope it’s a meeting point of imagination, reconciliation and a place to foster peace.”
If you would like to find out more about the David Oluwale Memorial Association, or stay up to date with plans for the memorial statue and park, please visit: rememberoluwale.org
Find more Black History Month content from across Leeds Beckett University.
If you would like to re-watch this event, you can find In Conversation with Yinka Shonibare on YouTube
Wind Sculpture photographed by Matt Brown
Wind Sculpture VII photographed by Robert Lyle Bolton
Dr Emily Zobel Marshall
Emily’s research is informed by postcolonial theory and includes examinations of constructions of identity, race and racial politics and Caribbean carnival cultures. She is particularly interested in forms of cultural resistance and cross-cultural fertilisation in the face of colonialism. Emily is an expert in the role of trickster figures in the literatures and cultures of Africa and its Diaspora and has published widely in this area.
