The exhibition is organised around Yinka Shonibare MBE's powerful installation, Egg Fight, 2009, which has just entered the Blachère Collection. This portrayal of conflict, based on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, is a thinly veiled allegory of religious differences between Protestants and Catholics, which perfectly illustrates Shonibare's interest in the clash between culture, politics and society.
Also included in the exhibition is, The Crowning, 2007, inspired by the works of Jean-Honoré Fragonnard. This work explores leisure, opulence, pleasures and the exploitation of slave labor, whilst questioning colonisation and its lasting impact. The rococo excess and fragrant romance of the work intensifies the collision between power, wealth and morality, a battle that can lead to revolution, also illustrated by Revolution Kid (Calf), 2012.
Egg Fight and the major works on view, are on loan from several institutions, galleries and private collections. These works chronicle Shonibare's obsession with the battle between opposing forces, both real and metaphorical and his exploration into themes surrounding opulence, power, morality, pleasure, colonisation, the environment and the arts.