Ethnic Charm - 10/05/12

Red Magazine shot at our playfully colourful location in North West London - a location full of inspiration and charm. Shot by Polly Wreford and styled and art directed by Mary Norden, showing how you can infuse your rooms with tribal prints and colour. They show how the use of vibrant patterns and saturated shades can "bring the whole wide world home." Some truly inspiring shots and so lovely to infuse some colour into these dull, grey days we are having at the moment. Location 2553 on jj Locations.

Seeing this use of ethnic fabrics got me thinking of the artist Yinka Shoribare who is renowned for using brightly coloured 'African' fabrics (Dutch wax-printed cotton) in his work, which he buys himself from Brixton market in London. He has these fabrics made up into Victorian dresses, covering sculptures of alien figures or stretched onto canvases and thickly painted over.

Sometimes, he re-creates famous paintings using headless dummies with the 'Africanised' clothing instead of their original costumes, for example Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews Without Their Heads, based on Thomas Gainsborough's painting and The Swing (after Fragonard). In his work Shoribare explores race and class issues and through different mediums he expresses the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe - which is demonstrated through his use of African printed fabric to re-create famous European paintings. This interlinks with Red Magazine's idea of bringing the "Whole Wide World Home." 

Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews Without Their Heads (1998) and The Swing (after Fragonard) (2001)

The Pursuit (2007) and The Confession (2007)

Article By Anna Lewis