Yinka

Shonibare

Patterns

of

Power

The

Arc

Winchester

–

John

K

Grande

Fanciful! Yinka Shonibare examines the metabolism of cultural history with a global grip on race. As a Nigerian-British artist, he has a gentle irreverence for Patterns of Power, hence the show’s title. Among his recent works, African Flower Magic (2025) uses flowers as a starting point to explore the interweaving of nature and culture. Fabric sections and Financial Times FTSE cut-outs feature primitivist image icons with organic designs. The floral fabric cut-outs of African fabrics that originated with Indonesian batik designs appropriated by the Dutch, introduce a multi-layered cultural referencing. As designs, these bring nature and culture together in an intercultural way. Shonibare’s is a playful hyper-synthesising of historical and Post-Pop culture that questions what is the high and what the low of art. Art history is given the appearance of a new facade. Yinka Shonibare chases aesthetics – styles, periods, epochs – as if it were a sheepdog to be caught up with. We see him coalesce it all in the Twins series, where gold leaf is merged with FTSE stock market quotes cut out from the Financial Times. Ah, yes, that strange pot-pourri of funds and art, something we can all comprehend in today’s artworld. In one of the Twin series, everybody is running, the idols and is it stockbrokers or Victorian gents but whatever they are black… foreign primitives or insider traders? Another in the Twins series features elegant all-black Victorian ladies in silhouette, carrying their parasols, and another slew of Financial Times quotes. The aristocrats or the servants – who is zooming who?