Theme: Identity and PostColonialism arts in Europe
Form of art: Visual Art
The Swing (after Fragonard) is an installation art piece in which a life-size headless female
mannequin, extravagantly dressed in an eighteenth-century style dress made of bright African
print fabric, reclines on a swing suspended from a verdant branch attached to the gallery ceiling.
A flowering vine cascades to the ground beneath her.
Yinka Shonibare's The Swing (after Fragonard), created in Sheffield in 2001, is based on JeanHonoré Fragonard's iconic Rococo painting, The Swing (Les hazards heureux de l'escarpolette),
1767 (Wallace Collection P430), which depicts an aristocratic young woman in a frothy pink
gown sweeping through a garden on a swing. In her wild abandon, she has kicked off one tiny
pink shoe, which Fragonard captures as it arcs through the air. Two men are watching the woman;
one pushes her from behind a tree, while the other lies beneath her in the foliage, precisely and
mischievously placed to look up her billowing skirts.
How it relates to Identity and Postcolonialism?
1. Cultural Hybridity:
2. Colonial Legacies:
3. Subverting European Art Forms
Yanki Shonibare explores the complex dynamics of power, race, and identity that emerge as a
result of colonial encounters. He challenges viewers to consider the ongoing legacies of
colonialism in shaping contemporary European identities, as well as the dominant narratives of
European art history. The artwork sparks conversations about cultural hybridity, identity
construction, and the need for a more nuanced understanding of history that includes multiple
perspectives.