Rococo Art meets Contemporary Art

In the eighteenth century, a new art was introduced called the Rococo. The clothing in this era was frilly, lacy, and poufy. In the Kamikaze Girls movie, Momoko loved the style from a clothing line she shopped in Tokyo. This clothing line was based off of the Rococo period but they called the style Lolita. This clothing line deals with the frills and laces like the Rococo period too. For the contemporary artists, I have found an artist that designs clothes from fabrics that are found and then designed into a contemporary piece of art. The artist’s name is Yinka Shonibare. He is a unique artist that designs his graphics that gets incorporated into his fabrics which make the design of the clothing. He does get some help because he is disabled which makes him lean to one side. Yinka finds these fabrics that are in bright colors and uses headless bodies to show the piece in a humorous way. I love the way he uses these headless bodies with his Rococo clothing and designs a piece that is very interesting. He also puts the bodies in a freeze frame. It means that the headless bodies are in some motion and is frozen in that motion with the clothing moving a certain way. Yinka’s pieces also show motion with the arms and legs of the headless bodies and there is a piece that I love that is based off of a Rococo painting called The Swing by Fragonard. Yinka incorporates that painting into his own piece called The Swing too. I think he did a great job with this piece because it looks like a three dimensional painting of the The Swing, but the female has no head which makes the piece interesting and unique. When I see Yinka’s pieces and the clothing on the bodies, it does make me feel that the clothing was actually made in the Rococo period which I think is awesome.

Yinka Shonibare

Some of his

pieces.