Content Area 10: The Swing (After Fragonard)

Formal Description

With her fingers delicately grasping the thickly coiled rope of a swing suspended mid-flight, a life-sized female mannequin flirtatiously kicks up her left foot, projecting her slipper into the air where it hovers above a tangle of branches. Our gaze is directed from the arch of her foot towards the vibrant trim of her petticoat, gown and coat.

What is the context of the Swing (after Fragonard)

- A three-dimensional recreation of the Rococo painting, The Swing which itself offers testimony to the opulence and frivolity of pre-Revolutionary France - Painted in 1767, Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing depicts a coquettish young girl swinging in a lush and fertile forest and, of course, playfully kicking up her shoe. - A sculpture of a bashful cherub looks on, but he is not alone; the female figure is flanked by two male figures lurking in the shadows, one seems to push her swing from behind, as the other mischievously glances up the layers of her dress to catch a glimpse of what is beneath. * The male gaze: men act, women appear.* - The beautiful young protagonist of Fragonard's painting has somehow become headless. This is likely a reference to the use of the guillotine during the Reign of Terror in the 1790s, when members of the French aristocracy were publicly beheaded.

Describe the The Swing (after Fragonard)

- As a British-born Nigerian, raised between Lagos and London, Shonibare is especially perceptive to the ways in which issues of access, nationalism and belonging have their roots in modern European history, particularly with regards to the United Kingdom and its relationship to its former colonies. Here is where the specific fabrics that Shonibare utilizes become more relevant, as their symbolism is steeped in histories of cultural appropriation, imperialism and power. - Tailored in the fashion of eighteenth-century French aristocratic style, the costume that is modeled by Shonibare's protagonist has been sewn from colorful and abstractly patterned fabrics with quite different origins: the bright golds, reds and blues arranged in geometric motifs across her ruffled skirt are typical of the 'African' Dutch wax fabrics that Shonibare has famously used to adorn his figural tableaux throughout his career. - The patterns on Dutch Wax fabrics were originally based on motifs found in Indonesian batiks, and were manufactured in England and Holland in the nineteenth-century. Predictably, the European imitations did not prove lucrative when sold in South Asian markets, so Dutch manufacturers then marketed the textiles to their West African colonies, where they have since been appropriated and integrated into local visual culture. - Shonibare wishes to forge connections between imperialism, the aristocracy, and the "colonized wealthy class." - While the leisure pursuit might look frivolous (...) my depiction of it is a way of engaging in that power. It is actually an expression of something much more profoundly serious insofar as the accumulation of wealth and power that is personified in leisure was no doubt a product of exploiting people.

The Swing (After Fragonard)

Date: 2001 Location: Culture: Artist: Yinka Shonibare Media: Sculpture

Rococo

Very highly ornamented; relating to an 18th century artistic style of elaborate ornamentation