Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Yinka Shonibare CBE, born 1962, British
Title:
Mrs Pinckney and the Emancipated Birds of South Carolina
Date:
2017
Materials & Techniques:
Fiberglass mannequin, Dutch wax-printed cotton textile, birdcage, birds, leather, and globe
Dimensions:
Overall: 97 × 51 × 27 inches (246.4 × 129.5 × 68.6 cm)
Credit Line:
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
Copyright Status:
© Copyright Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, 2017.
Accession Number:
B2017.17
Classification:
Sculptures
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
portrait | globe | birdcage | birds | Indigo bunting | American goldfinch | painted bunting
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
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, 2019, pp. 169, 170, 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 Muse

Joanna 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:
Commissioned by the YCBA, Shonibare’s sculpture addresses the eighteenth-century triangular trade between West Africa, North America, and Europe of enslaved people, animals, and goods. The female figure, a personification of Britain’s empire, stands on a globe that depicts the world as it was understood by the colonizers. Her dress is made of Ankara, a fabric associated with West Africa but first introduced by the British and Dutch. The birdcage symbolizes the colonial belief that humans and other living beings could be held as private property. --- The three birds refer to those presented to Princess Augusta in 1753 by Mrs. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, owner of a South Carolina slave plantation. Here they are free, an acknowledgment of West Africa’s eventual independence. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:73165