via www.artdaily.com on 7/18/09
| Newark Museum Unveils Installation by Yinka Shonibare MBE |
 Yinka Shonibare MBE, Party Time: Re-imagine America (2009), A Centennial Commission for The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London / James Cohan Gallery, New York. |
NEWARK, NJ.- The Newark Museum, located in Newark, New Jersey, has commissioned a major site-specific installation by the internationally acclaimed artist Yinka Shonibare MBE to commemorate the Museum's Centennial. One of Shonibare's most ambitious works to date, Party Time: Re-imagine America is set in the mahogany-paneled dining room of the Ballantine House, the 1885 mansion and National Historic Landmark that is part of the Newark Museum campus, where it will be on view through January 3, 2010.
The Newark Museum's Christa Clarke, Curator of the Arts of Africa and Senior Curator of the Arts of Africa and the Americas, and Ulysses Grant Dietz, Senior Curator and Curator of the Decorative Arts are the co-curators of Party Time: Re-imagine America.
Shonibare's longtime exploration of Victorian-era culture finds full expression in this theatrical sculptural tableau, which imagines the scene of a late 19th century dinner party midway through a multi-course feast. Eight headless figures, dressed in period costume made from the artist's signature "Dutch wax" fabric, are seated around an elaborately set table as a servant appears bearing the main course, a large peacock with gilded beak served on a silver platter. The animated body language of the guests suggests a moment in which proper Victorian etiquette has begun to disintegrate, as an indulgent celebration of prosperity tips towards misbehavior and even debauchery. The scene references the rise of wealth and quest for refinement that accompanied industrialization in the United States, where the elaborate dinner party replaced the bare-minimum meal, becoming a celebratory "eating fest" for the social and economic ruling class.
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