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This sculpture was created specifically for Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, an exhibition on view at the Yale Center for British Art from February to April 2017. It interprets the documented encounter between Mrs. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, owner of a slave plantation in South Carolina, and Augusta, Princess of Wales, in London in 1753. A female figure—at once the Princess, Pinckney, and a personification of Britain’s transatlantic empire—stands precariously on top of a globe that depicts the world as it appeared at the time of the meeting. Her dress references the original silk damask garment worn by Mrs. Pinckney but uses Yinka Shonibare’s signature material—Dutch wax-printed cotton textile, a fabric associated with the countries of West Africa. The figure’s head is replaced with an open cage and representations of birds that Mrs. Pinckney presented to Augusta: an American goldfinch, a painted bunting, and a blue linnet (or indigo bird) are all shown to have taken flight. The sculpture raises questions about the relationship between Enlightenment culture and oppression; reason and dishonest compromises with the truth; and the Enlightenment’s promotion of liberty with its tolerance of slavery. It invites frank conversations about the past and encourages reflections on the legacies of empire and slavery today.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016