Vacation, 2000 Wax-printed cotton textile, fiberglass On first inspection, Yinka Shonibare's »Vacation« seems an innocuous play on space exploration and its implications for science and human progress.
However, Shonibare's astronauts are dressed in space suits of so-called African wax-printed cotton textile, certainly not the attire normally associated with space travel. The astronauts' attire evokes the notion of 'going native', while speaking to the possibilities of a dominant 'Other'.
Shonibare's suggestion that one can embody the paradox of alien/Other and colonialist/explorer demonstrates the complexity of power dynamics between groups. (From the press information)
