By Iminza Keboge
Published February 19, 2021
An initiative that says it facilitates international cultural exchanges and develops creative and research practices through residencies and collaborations for practitioners such as artists, designers, curators, collectors, architects, agriculturists and ecologists, is setting up shop in west Africa.
The new foundation that is known as Guest Artists Space (GAS) that shall be located in Lagos and Ijebu is being developed by Yinka Shonibare, a London-based British-Nigerian artist born in 1962 whose “multi-disciplinary practice explores colonialism and post-colonialism within the context of globalisation. Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, Shonibare’s works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories.”
RELATED:Â Screen Culture Emerges from Kenyan Urban Slum Despair
The Yinka Shonibare Foundation (UK) was established in 2019 to support and deliver the work of GAS Foundation.
“Building on the success of Guest Projects London, GAS Foundation’s ambition is to encourage critical and engaging practices in the fields of contemporary art, design, architecture, agriculture and ecology with the space to research, experiment, share, educate and develop work,” Yinka Shonibare Foundation says.”We are establishing centres of research and experimentation in Nigeria, with live-and-work residencies in Lagos, one of the most enterprising and energetic cities in the world, and a rural farm in Ijebu, serving as opportunities to network locally and internationally with organisations, education providers, fellow practitioners, curators and researchers.”
RELATED:Â Evangelist of the Written-Word Exits the Stage
The foundation says GAS “will host cultural exchanges where international participants live and work, alongside their African peers for up to three months.”
The aims and objectives of GAS, whose directors are Yinka Shonibare, Bimpe Nkontchou, Temitayo Ogunbiyi and Tokini Peterside, are to:
- create a platform for creative development and knowledge
- exchange between established and emerging practitioners
- support international partnerships between artists, designers, curators, collectors, architects, agriculturists and ecologists
- foster the development of careers, both locally and internationally
- create learning opportunities for participants and the local audience of Lagos
- break down traditional barriers of privilege, wealth, lack of infrastructure and limited opportunities, and
- promote mutual understanding of cultural differences.
RELATED:Â Popular Gospel Singer Raises Controversy in Comeback
Would you like to hear a little more about the artist known as Yinka Shonibare who was born in London and moved Lagos at the age of three in 1965?
All right.
Shonibare returned to London to study Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art and at Goldsmiths College where he received a Master’s degree in Fine Art.
He was in 2002 commissioned to create one of his most recognised installations, Gallantry and Criminal Conversation for Documenta XI.
Shonibare’s mid-career survey began at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia; touring to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
In 2010, his first public art commission Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, and was acquired by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
RELATED:Â Africa-Based Residency Programme Selects Artists
Elected Royal Academician in 2013 Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture VI was in 2017 featured in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of the Arts in London as part of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Shonibare was also commissioned by the Yale Center for British Art to create Mrs Pinckney and the Emancipated Birds of South Carolina for inclusion in ‘Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World’, which went on display at Kensington Palace in London in 2017.
RELATED: How Father’s Diminishing Influence Hurts Individuals and Communities
In January 2019, Shonibare was awarded the decoration of ‘Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (CBE).
Yinka Shonibare CBE’s works are included in prominent collections internationally, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands.
