Earth Kid (Boy) II
- Mixed Media
- 47.5 x 37.125 x 23.25 in
- Yinka Shonibare
Earth Kid (Boy) II takes one of the four elements the Ancient Greeks understood to illustrate the natural world – Earth, Fire, Water, and Air – and reimagines the concept in response to the Climate Change movement. The sculpture features an 8-to-9-year-old male child carrying a fishing net full of electronic refuse. His head is a hand-painted globe depicting recent recordings of the earth’s surface temperature. His Victorian costume, crafted in the artist’s signature Dutch wax fabric, anachronistically locates the figure within the apotheosis of the British Empire, linking that era of industrial expansion to the current climate crisis. One of the consequences of the climate crisis is migration. Many of the New Americans crossing our borders is a result of the environmental degradation, climate crisis and its effects on various economies.
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (born 1962 in London, UK) is a member of the ‘Young British Artists’ generation who first came to prominence in the late 1990s. His works have been featured in Documenta 11 (2002) and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). Since 2013, Shonibare has created monumental public sculptures that freeze the elemental power of the wind in a moment of time. These abstract sculptures take the form of billowing fabric; their sail-like form is a “metaphor for the natural movement of people: migration.”
In the past two years, Shonibare has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria; M WOODS, Beijing, China; Arts House, Singapore; Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Driehaus Museum, Chicago, IL; Norval Foundation, Cape Town, SA; Hereford Cathedral, Herefordshire, UK; and Davidson College, Davidson, NC. Shonibare’s The British Library was recently acquired by the Tate London, where it remains on long-term display. His works are included in notable collections internationally, including the Tate Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL and VandenBroek Foundation, The Netherlands.