« by divine decree!! » weaves together seemingly disparate audio and visual media to relay historical continuities between the swift collapse of Nigeria’s First Republic (1960-1966) and the quotidian violence and social repressions that structure life in the Fourth Republic (1999 – present). Employing a lyrical approach that foregoes didacticism and linear storytelling and instead embraces playfulness, humor, and rhythm, Shonibare subverts the dominant cultural encodings of enshrined sites in the Nigerian and Afro-diasporic collective imaginary. The work destabilizes the presumptive gazes of Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike; for instance, by contrasting archival footage of Nigerian Pentecostal church services with scenes from American voguing ballrooms (therefore underscoring the campy jubilance that informs bath ceremonial sites).

Temitayo Shonibare (b. 1995, Lagos) is a British-Nigerian artist and designer working in London. She completed an MFA at Goldsmiths College, London (2022), and a BFA from Pratt lnstitute, New York (2018).

Shonibare’s work focuses on public space (bath physical and digital), performance and film production. Central to her practice is the questioning, provoking, and challenging of societal conventions and the way we are. Her research looks into social media and its effect on social interaction and the performance of the self online.

Recent exhibitions include: FREE LOVE [solo], Studio/ Chapple, London (2024); Traces of Ecstasy, lnstitute of Contemporary Art VCU, Virginia, USA (2024); REFUGE: 4th Lagos Biennial, Lagos, Nigeria (2024); Lagos Peckham Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes, South London Gallery, London (2023); Make it up!, Hasch, Marseille, France (2022); Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021, Firstsite Colchester and South London Gallery (2021); HDL, Xxijra Hii, London (2021).