YINKA SHONIBARE CBE, RA (b. 1962)
Mayflower, All Flowers, 2020
relief print with woodblock and fabric collage on paper
image: 96.7 x 89.5 cm
edition 27/50
This complex combination of woodblock and relief printing, depicts the iconic ship, the Mayflower, which transported a group of colonists from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620.
The icon of the Mayflower ship is decorated with multicoloured batik fabric sails. The brightly coloured “African” batik fabric was mass-produced by the Dutch colonists and eventually sold to the colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s the material became a new emblem of African identity and independence even though it’s design originated in Indonesia and was made in Europe. The history of the fabric serves as a potent metaphor for the shifting of both historical and contemporary cultural identities through the ages.
Mayflower, All Flowers seeks to champion and reassert the great American principle and tradition of the right to equality. The words 'All Flowers' in the title of the work have been added to 'Mayflower' to emphasise the necessity for an egalitarian society, encompassing immigration status, race, gender, religion or disability, in today's United States of America.
Provenance
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, where purchased October 2020.
Exhibited
Welbeck, Harley Gallery, A Voyage of Discovery, February-May 2022.