The American Library

In the Fall of 2018, Wind Sculpture (SG) I, a large-scale outdoor work by Yinka Shonibare MBE, was permanently installed and dedicated on campus. In order to provide additional context for this new acquisition, the Galleries present The American Library, an exhibition featuring Shonibare’s new project of the same name, along with related sculptures, photographs, and a film.

In the mid-1990s, artist Yinka Shonibare MBE began using Dutch wax textiles in his work. Over the past 170 years, Dutch wax textiles have come to occupy the same function as traditional woven cloths in Africa; both men and women buy these textiles to wear as wraps or to have tailored into outfits that convey status, prestige, and identity. Patterns are as colorful and varied as the information they communicate, with designs illustrating stories, depicting proverbs, or commemorating events. For Africans, Dutch wax textiles are indicators of solidarity and identity.

The revelation that these textiles, often considered quintessentially African, are European in origin, is a reminder of the continent’s colonial history. The textiles were first produced in the 1840s by the Dutch company Vlisco in an effort to manufacture a faster, less expensive version of the batiks colonists saw being hand-made in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). Lack of interest in these “fake” batiks from the Indonesians routed the printed cotton textiles to the African markets where they were well received. Later, Scottish, English, and Swiss manufacturers began producing the cloths, adapting designs to African taste.

The centerpiece of Shonibare’s exhibition is The American Library, an installation that first premiered in July 2018 at the FRONT Art Triennial, installed in the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library. The American Library celebrates the diversity of the American population and acts as an instigator of debate. The work consists of a set of shelves filled with over 6,000 books bound in the artist’s signature brightly colored, Dutch wax printed cotton fabric. Embossed in gold on the spines of over 3,000 of the books are the names of several generations of immigrants including some descendants of those who landed on American shores by force, through slavery. On iPads around the gallery, visitors are able to access more information about the individuals in the library – all of whom have benefited from immigration, yet some of whom hold anti-immigration views. Visitors can also elect to contribute their own immigration stories.

Davidson College is delighted to be the second venue in the US to show this esteemed project, and will contribute to the literature available about the artist by publishing the first book focused around The American Library with an introduction by Lia Newman, essay by Coco Fusco, and interview between Michelle Grabner and Yinka Shonibare MBE.