DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY 1999

Yinka Shonibare’s, *Dysfunctional Family* is a sculpture made using Dutch wax printed cotton. It's as though Shonibare is constructing an extraterrestrial family tableau, where their alienness becomes a way to explore ideas about cultural identity. The fabric is so tactile, it's almost edible – you just wanna reach out and grab them! The way the fabric stretches and strains over the forms gives them an oddly organic, almost grotesque feel, like swollen, misshapen fruit. Look at the figure on the left, the way the fabric bunches around its ‘belly’, creating this weirdly maternal form, and the way this contrasts with the spindly limbs. Shonibare’s use of Dutch wax fabric is key to this piece, because it's a material loaded with colonial history. This piece reminds me of Mike Kelley’s soft sculptures, or even some of Paul McCarthy’s abject figures. Art making is a process of ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time.