Fire Kid (Boy), 2021
Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, globe, brass, steel baseplate, painted fibreglass, wire, and silk.
57 1/2 x 37 3/8 x 37 3/8 in (including baseplate)
146 x 95 x 95 cm
146 x 95 x 95 cm
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Each of the four sculptures in 'Earth Kids' represents an elemental force: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. These classical elements were believed by the Ancient Greeks to illustrate the complexity...
Each of the four sculptures in "Earth Kids" represents an elemental force: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. These classical elements were believed by the Ancient Greeks to illustrate the complexity of the natural world. Shonibare is interested in the generative possibilities of contradiction and ambiguity. "Fire Kid (Boy)" depicts a male child leaning against a scorched trunk of a tree. The work references the grim scene in Francisco Goya’s "The Disasters of War," Plate 36, in which dismembered body parts hang from a tree. The boy, clad in Victorian-era garments, is reading a book about forest fires. Above him emerges a branch of budding young leaves from the burnt trunk, alluding to the possibility of redemption and regeneration.