The second work in Shonibare’s first outdoor sculpture series constructed in bronze, Wind Sculpture in Bronze II transforms a material typically used for Eurocentric public monuments into a weightless, billowing piece of cloth. Its materiality expands the artist's interest in freezing a moment in time and sculpting the impossible–giving form to the wind. The sculpture’s dancing, abstract form
monumentalizes the wind as a metaphor for the movement of people across the Globe, and by extension, histories of slavery, migration, colonialism, and empire. In this way, the work challenges tradition and invests new life into public sculpture by expanding what it can say and who it can represent.

Wind Sculpture in Bronze is hand-painted cast bronze, and measures 2 meters high. The pattern, based on the artist’s signature Dutch Wax fabric, is embossed with lowered areas painted to mimic batik, and raised areas in a satin-finish patina. Each sculpture in the series is a unique color scheme.

The Dutch wax textiles that were ubiquitous throughout Shonibare’s childhood home of Lagos, Nigeria have become a central motif within his practice. The mixed origins of the fabric describe global relationships between Asia, Europe, and Africa. The cloth was factory-made by the Dutch, based on the patterns of Indonesian batiks, and sold to Britain’s West African colonies, where they were embraced as a symbol of “authentic” African identity. These embedded contradictions have made Dutch wax cloth the perfect vehicle for Shonibare to ignite lively visual conversations about our multi-layered identities and global interdependence for over 30 years.

The first sculpture from this series belongs in the permanent collection of the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park in Stockholm.