Laura Gascoigne

Beguiling: Yinka Shonibare, at the Serpentine Galleries, reviewed

Plus: a multicultural mise-en-scène at Houghton Hall that really works

‘Decolonised Structures (Frere)’, 2022, by Yinka Shonibare. Credit: Photographer: Stephen White & Co. © Yinka Shonibare CBE  
issue 18 May 2024

More than seven centuries ago, the medieval cartographer Richard of Haldingham created Hereford Cathedral’s Mappa Mundi; I say ‘created’ because when he drew his map it was largely a work of the imagination. Its terra incognita is populated with bizarre creatures born of the fever dreams of early travel writers: his Africa is inhabited by Monocules, one-eyed, one-legged men who use their single foot as a parasol, and his Asia is roamed by the Bonnacon, a bull-like creature with inward-curling horns whose only defence is his projectile faeces.

As a Londoner who grew up in Lagos he felt kinship with the...

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in