Yale Center for British Art, Acquired with funds from the Bequest of Daniel S. Kalk, the Director's Discretionary Fund, and the Friends of British Art Fund
Enlightened Princesses - Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-02-02 - 2017-04-30)Enlightened Princesses - Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World (Historic Royal Palaces, 2017-06-22 - 2017-11-12)
Publications:
Martina Droth, Britain in the world: Highlights from the Yale Center for British Art in honor of Amy Meyers, Yale University Press, New Haven, London, p. 169, p.170, p. 171, N6761 .Y33 2019 (LC) (YCBA)Arlene Leis, Review of the Exhibition Enlightened Princesses : Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the shaping of the modern world. . ., Early Modern Women, vol. 12, Accessed January 21, 2023, pp. 187-9, fig. 4, Project MuseJoanna Marschner, Enlightened Princesses : Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn, 2017, pp. 530-531, fig. 31.03, NX543 +.E55 2017 Oversize (YCBA)Kent Lendiwe Williams, Dress as a site of multiple selves : Address and redress in Judith Mason's The Man who Sang and the Woman who Kept Silent and Wanja Kiriani's You Have Not Changed, Image & Text, vol. 29, Accessed January 21, 2023, p. 179, DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals
Gallery Label:
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