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Yinka Shonibare Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection

October 7, 2005 - September 24, 2006 (new closing date)

Museum: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Location: The Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery

This exhibition, curated by Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, explores modes of transportation, from the 16th to the 20th centuries, as both a means of economic advancement and as a leisure time activity. Highlights include bird cages and images of cars, trains, shoes, boats, hot air balloons, and carriages transferred on everything from wallpaper to matchsafes. In addition, the curator has created 3-D "figures" of the Hewitt sisters (the founders of the museum), dressed in Victorian clothing made from pseudo-African textiles, to visually symbolize the nature of cultural dissemination, travel, and trade.