Twins IV

Yinka Shonibare CBE (1962 - )

silkscreen print with gold leaf on paper

2015

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© Yinka Shonibare CBE. All rights reserved, DACS 2022.

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection

    In these silkscreen prints, the artist Yinka Shonibare explores the significance of twins in Yoruba folklore, aligning this with ideas of colonialism. Known as ‘ibeji’, twins are regarded as divine beings and capable of bringing either affluence or despair to their parents. They are seen as sources of both anxiety and celebration. Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and film, questioning the meaning of cultural and national definitions. In this work the disparate ideas associated with twins and the questions around the identity of two individuals who are similar but not the same, serves as a reference to the legacy of colonialism. The screenprints include varied cultural references, with figures in Victorian-era dress mirroring Yoruba masks amidst swirling patterns that include newspaper cuttings and gold leaf. Also included are fragments of fabrics in prints associated with Africa. A familiar motif in Shonibare’s work, these fabrics were inspired by Indonesian batik design, mass-produced by their Dutch colonisers and eventually sold to colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s, this same material became a new sign of African identity and independence.


  • About the artist
    Yinka Shonibare CBE was born in London and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. He returned to London to study Fine Art, first at Byam School of Art and then at Goldsmiths College, where he received his MFA. Shonibare was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004, and was also awarded the decoration of Member of the ‘Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ or MBE, a title he has added to his professional name. Shonibare was notably commissioned by Okwui Enwezor at Documenta XI, Kassel, in 2002 to create his most recognised work 'Gallantry and Criminal Conversation' that launched him on to an international stage. He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale and internationally at leading museums. In September 2008, his major mid-career survey commenced at the MCA Sydney and then toured to the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He was elected as a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy, London in 2013. In January 2019, Yinka Shonibare was awarded the decoration of CBE.
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  • Details
    Title
    Twins IV
    Edition
    Number 1 in an edition of 10 plus 2 artist's proofs
    Date
    2015
    Medium
    silkscreen print with gold leaf on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 106.0 cm; width: 102.0 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the artist via Stephen Friedman Gallery, September 2019
    Inscription
    recto: inscribed by the artist 'Yinka Shonibare 1/10 2015', bottom left
    Provenance
    Stephen Friedman Gallery, London UK; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 12 September 2019
    GAC number
    18829