Monday, October 26, 2009

Yinka Shonibare, MBE, and thoughts on Originality

Originality: it's one of the sacred cows of art. No matter how many artists have questioned the centrality of this principle, it just keeps coming up. There's that heart-sinking feeling when you see another artist dealing with similar subjects…especially when you think they're doing it better than you! Let me preface this by saying my own paintings are based on Seventeenth-century portraits, and because I omit the heads, the hands and clothing of the figures have to carry the mood and gesture of the image. The figures are hybrids of male and female forms, and often include deer.

I had read a brief article on Yinka Shonibare some years ago; I believe it was in Vogue. The author's focus was Shonibare's use of fabric in his drawings. Nowhere did it mention some of his other themes, which were featured on Art21's Transformation episode. His phenomenal sculptural work features headless figures in mannered poses, dressed in elaborate historical costumes. They are sometimes accompanied by exotic stuffed animals. In his pieces, he acts as social critic, utilizing and then bending the conventions of historical portraiture. His work makes a bold political statement without having to resort to rhetoric..and he does it through beauty (I don't think art needs to be "beautiful", though I am always impressed when an artist is able to use that tool well).

As I watched the segment on his work, I found myself captivated and irritated. A part of me (the shallow part!) was thinking, geez, there goes my schtick! How could I have not known this man's work? Why didn't I realize I was being derivative? Another voice chimed in: my reasons for choosing my images are different, and just as legitimate as Shonibare's…and furthermore, I have noticed a surge of similar imagery in the work of other artists (pick up the latest New American Paintings): historical costuming and animals, especially deer. Deer are ubiquitous these days. My own fascination began ten years ago when I befriended a pair of captive deer. I visited them every day and found them to be lovely and haunting creatures. I don't want to stop painting them just because so many others are (and have, goodness, since the Paleolithic!) Maybe I just need to keep following the thread of the imagery and see where it goes…

It's not the first time I've noticed that a certain set of images will begin to crop up everywhere, unbeknownst to those producing the images. Art does, it seems, tap into something collective and communal. I suppose one cannot help but be a product of one's time! This phenomenon doesn't mesh well with the notion that artists should be "originals"…which, by the way, is the product of the very culture that Yinka Shonibare critiques in his work…in spite of being made a Member of the British Empire by the Queen herself…

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