Earth Kid (Boy)

Date

2020

Creator

The Nigerian-British artist, Yinka Shonibare CBE, is among the most compelling international figures in Contemporary art. He engages with timely issues ranging from colonial and postcolonial cultures, race, disabilities, and climate change. In Earth Kid (Boy), Shonibare uses a hand-painted scorched globe to symbolize the crisis of global drought and climate change. Shonibare dresses Earth Kid (Boy) in an outfit that draws influence from the Victorian era—the height of the colonial period in Africa. The use of brightly patterned Dutch batik cloth signals the complex trade relationships, including the slave trade, between Europe and Nigeria (and Africa at large). Shonibare has compared the ravaging of African land under colonial rule to the ongoing extraction of Earth’s resources, contributing to climate change. Most of Shonibare’s figures remain headless to emphasize the universal over the individual; the use of a boy shows Shonibare’s admiration for the younger generation, who is taking action to save our planet. Yinka Shonibare: "It’s a call to action. You know, we do want to protect the planet for our children in the future, and so we have to act. I do use kids in a lot of my work. I’ve actually been particularly inspired by the way that the younger generation are not passive; they’re seeing what we are doing wrong and [are] pushing us to do something about it. And I think that’s admirable."