Comments on: Shonibare at Play in the Period Rooms

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:57:33 +0000

Thanks for discuss this. Good posting on your blog. I was reading your post and I have bookmark your blog done.

By: Yinka Shonibare’s Victorian Children «

Yinka Shonibare’s Victorian Children « — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:17:21 +0000

[…] I saw some of Yinka Shonibare’s wonderful work at the Museum of Art in Santa Barbara this past spring. He’s currently got a similar exhibit up at the Brooklyn Museum, though his “Mother and Father Worked Hard So I Can Play” is particularly great, because it makes use of the Museum’s oft-overlooked period rooms. Shonibare has given new life to the installations by peppering the rooms with Victorian children playing, sometimes requiring visitors to explore the spaces differently in order to find them. Even better, his process itself has is being characterized as playful. […]

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:34:10 +0000

I want to start by saying that I am a big fan of Yinka’s body of work up to now. However, I struggle to find the relevance between Yinka’s comments on the European colonization of Africa and American period rooms. Certainly there was mimicry of European decorative art trends during the colonial period, but here that only confuses the reality that these are not actual European settings. If the artist had somehow chosen to address the African-American experience of the American colonial period, I would be convinced; but his standard Victorian costumes in Dutch textiles just don’t seem to apply here. Yinka is not African-American and the period rooms are not European. I don’t think you can have it both ways. There is no discourse going on here about the tri-continental movement to of either Europeans or Africans. It is as though visual ‘fun’ and getting visitors into the period rooms, has superseded the quality of the art. I think it’s time for Yinka to move forward with his work.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:28:39 +0000

Ruben – I have not visited the period rooms at the Museum, but after reading your comment I will make a point to go. I am a big fan of the new American Wing and their period rooms. I think they are my favorite part in the entire museum. There is just something about being in a room that can transcend you back to a point in time and allow you to be completely absorbed in that era. I believe these rooms are important pieces of history that need to be maintained so people can understand what life was like in previous periods. I hope the Museum will pay more attention to these areas.

By: Ruben Safir

Ruben Safir — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:42:19 +0000

I saw this the last time I was at the Museum and it is certainly an interesting twist. But the museum itself has made a huge mistake relegating the period rooms to an after thought and destroying the continuity of the original displays for the Feminist areas. It’s terrible the lack of attention they get. The Moorish room needs some work as it is fading rapidly at this point and a number of the important structures are completely gone. The historical Brooklyn houses are shoved in a corner. It is too bad that the historical importance of these works have not received their due.

Brooklyn is one of the most historical places in the US and nearly a scant word is left of what was once the best part of the museum.