Making mayhem
Yinka Shonibare MBE tells Simon Stephens about his work with museums and why there is no escaping the past
“My relationship with museums is a very interesting one – I have a love-hate relationship with institutions,” says Yinka Shonibare. “I like to go in there and cause mayhem.”
The artist currently has his largest-ever UK show, Fabric-ation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which covers the mayhem he been creating over the past 10 years and features more than 30 works.
Among these are flying aliens, a headless ballet dancer, an egg fight and foxes brandishing guns, all done with his trademark humour and style. But there is method behind his mischief.
He points to a work that he did at the National Gallery as part of an exhibition marking the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 2007.
This featured two beheaded ex-slave owners shooting at a pheasant suspended from the ceiling, not the usual type of artwork associated with this particular London gallery. But it is work such as this that helps widen the appeal of the museum where it is displayed.
“I am not necessarily just wanting to stand outside museums and protest – I think it is important to go inside institutions and make them more innovative,” Shonibare says.
“By allowing that level of innovation and creativity within the institution they will move themselves on to a different audience – that is what I am hoping for.
“You do have to change it because there is a younger generation coming,” he adds. “You have to understand that if you are going to survive you have to keep innovating and keep continuing to have a diversity of audiences.”
Shonibare is keen for his art to be seen by people beyond the confines of the art world. This is partly why the Fourth Plinth project was so important in his development as an artist as it allowed him to reach new audiences and have new conversations about his work.
His Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, (see above) was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square from May 2010 to January 2012.
Going public
“I enjoyed that process of taking art outside and taking it to the public,” says Shonibare. “A lot of people in London seem to have an opinion on the Fourth Plinth – from cab drivers to… anybody really.”
He sees public art as an extension of his gallery work, albeit with the ability to engage a broader audience. His Fourth Plinth experience led to the two six-metre tall Wind Sculptures that he created specifically for the exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“Yorkshire Sculpture Park is good because they have a gallery space and an open-air space, so that is a great opportunity to explore my gallery work and my public art work in the same location.”
Shonibare is keen to be exposed to new ideas himself, which is partly why he has developed an exhibition space, Guest Pro-jects, at his studio in Hackney in east London.
This offers artists a free exhibition space for one month, with participants chosen by a committee that includes Shonibare as well as others who have used the space in the past.
“With innovation, I don’t just want to preach it to institutions, I want to be around that myself, I want to be challenged myself,” Shonibare says. “It [Guest Projects] is a space where younger artists can actually have the opportunity to produce new ideas.”
Providing a forum for younger artists is also important to Shonibare as it had an impact on him when he was starting out.
“I showed in artist-run spaces when I was a young artist and I was discovered there. My gallery picked me up in one of those types of space – that was my break.”
Shonibare was born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria. He returned to London to study art and graduated from Goldsmiths College as one of the generation of Young British Artists. He may have been part of this generation but he always seems to have had his own distinct identity.
He started out focusing on painting, but this has slowly evolved to include sculpture, photography, performance and film. He now often uses a variety of media simultaneously.
Artistic influences
Shonibare’s influences are many and varied and include artists such as William Hogarth and the writer Jonathan Swift, who both used satire in their work.
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is the inspiration for Egg Fight at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park exhibition. Music is also important to him, particularly the late Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and African-American musicians such as Gil Scott Heron.
Funk and soul groups the Delfonics and Breakwater feature in Space Walk, one of his earliest works that can be seen at the Fabric-ation show.
Shonibare’s work is often inspired by art history, particularly the Fake Death Pictures. These feature Lord Nelson in a series of re-creations from well-known paintings by Manet, Henry Wallis, Bartolomé Carducho and François-Guillaume Ménageot.
Through all of this, one of Shonibare’s trademarks is his use of batik, a fabric that has its roots in Indonesia but was manufactured by the British and the Dutch for the West African market.
The material’s history makes it a perfect metaphor for his dissection of identity and culture. It is still produced today and he buys it in London markets and occasionally designs it himself.
The use of batik gives Shonibare’s art an identifiable look, but this colourful material also contributes to the humour in his art.
“He deals with hefty subjects, like post-colonialism, race, gender and identity, but it’s always done with a lightness of touch and exuberance,” says Clare Lilley, the director of programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. “He uses beauty and humour as a form of communication.”
His most recent show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, which has represented him for 16 years, focused on the greed and excess that led to the current economic crisis. Pop! (16 March–20 April) used art historical references to address the behaviour of the banking industry, most notably in Shonibare’s creation of a large tableau based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.
Contemporary concerns are also addressed in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park exhibition, particularly through Revolution Kids, the human-like foxes that are Shonibare’s response to the London riots and the Arab Spring in 2011.
Whether it is in his use of batik, his references to Nelson or the iconic paintings that feature in his work, history and its impact on us now are central to Shonibare’s concerns.
“I am very interested in identity, in history and in understanding why things are the way they are today, and there is always a reason for that,” he says.
“For example, how do you begin to understand multicultural Britain now, what brought that about, why all these people are here – what is the history of that? That is the history of colonialism. There is no getting away from the past, unfortunately, because the past is always in the present.”
Yinka Shonibare was born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria. He returned to London to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art and at Goldsmiths College in London.
In his late teens Shonibare contracted a virus that affected his spinal cord and resulted in a progressive disability.
His work is represented in major public collections all over the world, and in 2004 he was nominated for the Turner Prize.
The same year the artist was awarded an MBE, a title that he has added to his professional name.
Yinka Shonibare MBE’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square from May 2010 to January 2012.
The Fourth Plinth programme, which started in 1999 and is overseen by the Mayor of London, has brought a series of contemporary artworks to this high-profile location in the centre of the capital.
The work is a painstakingly crafted 1/30th replica of Nelson’s HMS Victory, the battleship on which he died during the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Its sails are made from Shonibare’s trademark batik, a cloth produced by Dutch and British manufacturers and sold in West Africa since the 19th century.
The work is the first commission on the Fourth Plinth to reflect specifically on the historical symbolism of the square, which commemorates the battle. It links directly with Nelson’s column.
Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was bought by Royal Museums Greenwich in 2012 for display outside the recently opened Sammy Ofer wing at the National Maritime Museum in London.
“It was such a perfect acquisition for Royal Museums Greenwich,” says Christine Riding, senior curator of art at the museum. “It is a very resonant piece of art in terms of the types of stories and narratives we tell here. Nelson is a major figure for us in terms of our remit and our collections.”
The work was bought for £362,000, which included £50,000 from the Art Fund and £49,100 from the museum itself, which was matched by the Stephen Friedman Gallery and the James Cohan Gallery on behalf of the artist. A public fundraising appeal raised more than £264,000.
Riding says that the artist was supportive of the acquisition: “Yinka was cock-a-hoop that Greenwich was going to acquire the work. He was thrilled that it would still have an outside public space. He knows our collection and has been here on numerous occasions.”
The artist currently has his largest-ever UK show, Fabric-ation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which covers the mayhem he been creating over the past 10 years and features more than 30 works.
Among these are flying aliens, a headless ballet dancer, an egg fight and foxes brandishing guns, all done with his trademark humour and style. But there is method behind his mischief.
He points to a work that he did at the National Gallery as part of an exhibition marking the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 2007.
This featured two beheaded ex-slave owners shooting at a pheasant suspended from the ceiling, not the usual type of artwork associated with this particular London gallery. But it is work such as this that helps widen the appeal of the museum where it is displayed.
“I am not necessarily just wanting to stand outside museums and protest – I think it is important to go inside institutions and make them more innovative,” Shonibare says.
“By allowing that level of innovation and creativity within the institution they will move themselves on to a different audience – that is what I am hoping for.
“You do have to change it because there is a younger generation coming,” he adds. “You have to understand that if you are going to survive you have to keep innovating and keep continuing to have a diversity of audiences.”
Shonibare is keen for his art to be seen by people beyond the confines of the art world. This is partly why the Fourth Plinth project was so important in his development as an artist as it allowed him to reach new audiences and have new conversations about his work.
His Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, (see above) was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square from May 2010 to January 2012.
Going public
“I enjoyed that process of taking art outside and taking it to the public,” says Shonibare. “A lot of people in London seem to have an opinion on the Fourth Plinth – from cab drivers to… anybody really.”
He sees public art as an extension of his gallery work, albeit with the ability to engage a broader audience. His Fourth Plinth experience led to the two six-metre tall Wind Sculptures that he created specifically for the exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
“Yorkshire Sculpture Park is good because they have a gallery space and an open-air space, so that is a great opportunity to explore my gallery work and my public art work in the same location.”
Shonibare is keen to be exposed to new ideas himself, which is partly why he has developed an exhibition space, Guest Pro-jects, at his studio in Hackney in east London.
This offers artists a free exhibition space for one month, with participants chosen by a committee that includes Shonibare as well as others who have used the space in the past.
“With innovation, I don’t just want to preach it to institutions, I want to be around that myself, I want to be challenged myself,” Shonibare says. “It [Guest Projects] is a space where younger artists can actually have the opportunity to produce new ideas.”
Providing a forum for younger artists is also important to Shonibare as it had an impact on him when he was starting out.
“I showed in artist-run spaces when I was a young artist and I was discovered there. My gallery picked me up in one of those types of space – that was my break.”
Shonibare was born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria. He returned to London to study art and graduated from Goldsmiths College as one of the generation of Young British Artists. He may have been part of this generation but he always seems to have had his own distinct identity.
He started out focusing on painting, but this has slowly evolved to include sculpture, photography, performance and film. He now often uses a variety of media simultaneously.
Artistic influences
Shonibare’s influences are many and varied and include artists such as William Hogarth and the writer Jonathan Swift, who both used satire in their work.
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is the inspiration for Egg Fight at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park exhibition. Music is also important to him, particularly the late Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and African-American musicians such as Gil Scott Heron.
Funk and soul groups the Delfonics and Breakwater feature in Space Walk, one of his earliest works that can be seen at the Fabric-ation show.
Shonibare’s work is often inspired by art history, particularly the Fake Death Pictures. These feature Lord Nelson in a series of re-creations from well-known paintings by Manet, Henry Wallis, Bartolomé Carducho and François-Guillaume Ménageot.
Through all of this, one of Shonibare’s trademarks is his use of batik, a fabric that has its roots in Indonesia but was manufactured by the British and the Dutch for the West African market.
The material’s history makes it a perfect metaphor for his dissection of identity and culture. It is still produced today and he buys it in London markets and occasionally designs it himself.
The use of batik gives Shonibare’s art an identifiable look, but this colourful material also contributes to the humour in his art.
“He deals with hefty subjects, like post-colonialism, race, gender and identity, but it’s always done with a lightness of touch and exuberance,” says Clare Lilley, the director of programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. “He uses beauty and humour as a form of communication.”
His most recent show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, which has represented him for 16 years, focused on the greed and excess that led to the current economic crisis. Pop! (16 March–20 April) used art historical references to address the behaviour of the banking industry, most notably in Shonibare’s creation of a large tableau based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.
Contemporary concerns are also addressed in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park exhibition, particularly through Revolution Kids, the human-like foxes that are Shonibare’s response to the London riots and the Arab Spring in 2011.
Whether it is in his use of batik, his references to Nelson or the iconic paintings that feature in his work, history and its impact on us now are central to Shonibare’s concerns.
“I am very interested in identity, in history and in understanding why things are the way they are today, and there is always a reason for that,” he says.
“For example, how do you begin to understand multicultural Britain now, what brought that about, why all these people are here – what is the history of that? That is the history of colonialism. There is no getting away from the past, unfortunately, because the past is always in the present.”
Yinka Shonibare MBE at a glance
Yinka Shonibare was born in England in 1962 and raised in Nigeria. He returned to London to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art and at Goldsmiths College in London.
In his late teens Shonibare contracted a virus that affected his spinal cord and resulted in a progressive disability.
His work is represented in major public collections all over the world, and in 2004 he was nominated for the Turner Prize.
The same year the artist was awarded an MBE, a title that he has added to his professional name.
A lot of bottle
Yinka Shonibare MBE’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square from May 2010 to January 2012.
The Fourth Plinth programme, which started in 1999 and is overseen by the Mayor of London, has brought a series of contemporary artworks to this high-profile location in the centre of the capital.
The work is a painstakingly crafted 1/30th replica of Nelson’s HMS Victory, the battleship on which he died during the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Its sails are made from Shonibare’s trademark batik, a cloth produced by Dutch and British manufacturers and sold in West Africa since the 19th century.
The work is the first commission on the Fourth Plinth to reflect specifically on the historical symbolism of the square, which commemorates the battle. It links directly with Nelson’s column.
Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was bought by Royal Museums Greenwich in 2012 for display outside the recently opened Sammy Ofer wing at the National Maritime Museum in London.
“It was such a perfect acquisition for Royal Museums Greenwich,” says Christine Riding, senior curator of art at the museum. “It is a very resonant piece of art in terms of the types of stories and narratives we tell here. Nelson is a major figure for us in terms of our remit and our collections.”
The work was bought for £362,000, which included £50,000 from the Art Fund and £49,100 from the museum itself, which was matched by the Stephen Friedman Gallery and the James Cohan Gallery on behalf of the artist. A public fundraising appeal raised more than £264,000.
Riding says that the artist was supportive of the acquisition: “Yinka was cock-a-hoop that Greenwich was going to acquire the work. He was thrilled that it would still have an outside public space. He knows our collection and has been here on numerous occasions.”