PARIS.- Mennour is presenting Yinka Shonibare’s first solo exhibition in Paris entitled “The Wind, the Earth and the Fire” at 5 rue du Pont de Lodi.

The show brings various ongoing bodies of work into dialogue, including new quilts, hand-painted bronze and textile sculptures, and positions the multidisciplinary artist as one of the leading voices to explore postcolonialism and hybridity in contemporary art.

Born in London, raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Shonibare has always experienced the world by navigating, and somehow bridging, distinct cultures. Decolonial studies continue to show how defining a sense of identity and belonging is far more complex than solely relying on what can be found in a national archive.

By tracing the history of Dutch wax textiles, Shonibare uncovers the deep layers of complexity embedded within them and conveys the impossibility of pinning down an artifact as authentic. Rooted in Indonesian textile traditions, the hand-crafted wax fabric was appropriated by the Dutch colonisers who began mass-manufacturing it in the 1850s. Its commercialisation failed in Indonesia however because consumers rejected the lower quality of European factory production. Instead, it found a thriving market along the colonial trade routes of West Africa. There, embraced by local communities during the post-independence era of the 1960s, it was customised with regional colours and motifs, ultimately being adopted as traditional attire.

With his “Wind Sculpture” series, Shonibare creates bronze sculptures that mimic Dutch wax fabric billowing in the wind. Playing with the contradiction between the heaviness of metal and the weightlessness of fabric, the works capture the movement of fabric in motion, as if they were gracefully swaying in the wind. They also evoke the movement of people across seas, due to climate change, trade, conflict, economic deprivation or simple curiosity. Here air flow becomes a monument to resilience, and the question remains: can displacement take on a tangible form?

A particular attention to ecology runs through Shonibare’s practice, and more specifically on the impact that colonial extraction has left on natural habitats and regional landscapes. Applying the tradition of landscape painting to quilt-making, his “Nature Works” depict scenes of fire that are strikingly beautiful and seemingly innocent. While mythology and religion have long associated fire with renewal and growth, recent history portrays it as a ravaging, destructive force—a tragic consequence of global warming and conflict. Despite being rendered in an enticing colour palette and harmonious arrangement of soft fabrics, the burning gas flares and cash crops highlight the devastating impact of industrialisation and Western colonisation. These exploitative activities continue to burn through our natural world, quite literally adding fuel to the fire.

Shonibare’s textile works merge diverse threads of Modernism, his designs allude to Pablo Picasso’s harlequin paintings and the bold colour variations and dynamic asymmetries of the African American quilting collectives. The presence of ancestral masks points to the foundational influence of African artefacts on Western artists such as Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani. These masks watch over endangered species of birds, monkeys and flowers native to African soil. Serving as a celebration of local fauna and flora on one hand, and intertwined with an urgent warning to save them from extinction on the other, Shonibare’s works are imbued with nostalgia for a time when biodiversity was respected by humanity, providing the foundations for a mindful and harmonious society.

The exhibition “The Wind, the Earth and the Fire” draws on the plural meaning of images and artefacts, calling into question unilateral thinking and highlighting the impact of colonisation on indigenous populations and nature. As a concluding note, Refugee Astronaut XII stands tall at the back of the gallery, serving as a stark reminder of the global refugee crisis. His garments remind us of historical colonial extraction, still ongoing today. Equipped to navigate eco-logical and humanitarian crises, this hybrid messenger carries worldly possessions on his back in search of an alternative, safer planet to land on.

— Megan Macnaughton