BUTTERFLY KID (BOY) III 2018

This sculptural piece, Butterfly Kid (Boy) III, was conceived by Yinka Shonibare. There’s something so beautiful and strange about the tilted stance of this figure; like a precarious balancing act, where one wrong move could send it tumbling. I find myself wondering what it was like for Shonibare, as he put this together; did he feel a similar sense of instability, or was there something empowering in giving form to such vulnerability? I feel that impulse as a painter, where you are trying to bring the unknown to the world. The vibrant Dutch wax fabrics are signature for Shonibare; the tension of a European silhouette fashioned from materials associated with African identity really sings. It speaks to the kind of cultural collisions I consider in my own work. It’s like all of us artists are in conversation with one another across time, riffing on ideas, and inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.