Artes Magnus Limited Editions is pleased to announce the publication of Carriage Clock, a new edition by Yinka Shonibare CBE. The artist offers a wry commentary on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and the vestiges of empire. Informed by an upbringing split between Nigeria and Great Britain, Shonibare’s work confronts the fraught history between the two countries. Amalgamating imagery from both cultures, the work exposes the ingrained conflicts of geopolitics and their outsized role in shaping material culture.
Carriage Clock takes the form of the Queen’s Irish Carriage, among the most iconic symbols of the British Empire at its most powerful. Using his signature African Batik fabric for the inner and outer upholstery of the carriage, the artist invites viewers to consider Britain’s relationship to its former colonial holdings and the violence inherent therein. Inside the carriage sits a clock whose hands move in reverse; the time is only legible when read in the mirror across from it. In a typically layered gesture, Shonibare presents time itself as a political and social force, questioning its supposedly linear relationship with progress and human advancement, especially in the face of stifling governments and expansionist colonial bodies.
Carriage clocks were invented in 1812 by Abraham-Louis Breguet, reputedly for Napoleon to take on his campaigns. They became a popular travel timepiece in the 19th century, paving the way for the development of the wristwatch in the late 1800’s.
Shonibare's interpretation of the carriage clock explores colonial power through word play and a reimagining of the object, transforming the carriage into a clock itself. Looking through the window of its coach, viewers see both their own visage and the image of a working clock reflected back at them by a mirror embedded in the interior. The seats in the vehicle are upholstered in Shonibare's signature Dutch-wax printed fabric; the textiles' complex origins and shifting significance refer to both a long history of international exchange and the fiction of cultural authenticity.
This edition is also available for purchase through Sotheby's Fine Arts' "Edtions Hot Off The Press" collection, where you can also find additional images of the editions featured. Please visit the Sotheby’s Website for more information.
YINKA SHONIBARE CBE CARRIAGE CLOCK
3D printed using ABS, PLA plastics, resin, automobile paints, etched brass, dry transfers, acrylic mirror, batik fabric, quartz clock
8.25 x 14 x 23.25 in. (21 x 36 x 59 cm)
each edition of 50 is signed and numbered
$18,000*
Each edition is accompanied by a colophon, signed, and numbered by the artist
and stamped with his seal.
*Price of edition subject to change with editions sold