An artist with a lot of bottle

Yinka Shonibare was born in London and grew up in Nigeria. Now his work is washing up on the shores of Australia and the USA, and it will soon be seen in Trafalgar Square. He talks to Kelly Mullan

A message in a bottle seems an odd medium for mass communication, unless the bottle is five metres long and astride the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. In June, 2009, the pedestal that made Alison Lapper a household name will bear the weight of HMS Victory, a sculpture by disabled Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare MBE.

Shonibare’s work in painting, photography, film and sculpture unravels and rewrites the history of multiculturalism in Britain. HMS Victory is a scale model of Nelson’s ship, in a giant Perspex bottle.

Shonibare says: “I hope people will see something magical in front of them. I remember as a child wondering how the ship got into the bottle. I want people to be excited and enchanted and then to want to ask questions about the history of the HMS Victory.”

The flags of the ship will be made from batik (wax-printed cotton), a material Shonibare always returns to. He explains: “Batik is originally from Indonesia. The Dutch then produced it industrially and sold it in west Africa. It’s now seen as an African textile. I like the journey the fabric has been through. It’s Indonesian, African and Dutch. Fabric is a good metaphor for the way I see identity.

“I draw on influences from my own cultural background. I was born in London to Nigerian parents, grew up in Nigeria and moved back to the UK when I was 17.

“To understand now and our future, an understanding of our past is important. Our history is relevant to the look of London now, our mixed identity is a consequence of Nelson’s victory that opened up the seas, allowing the British Empire to expand.”

Disability affects how Shonibare works in all media. Paralysed on one side, he makes small sections that are then assembled into larger works. But his art rarely foregrounds disability. He explains: “I identify myself as a disabled artist, I understand it politically, but I would not put myself in a movement.”

An exception was a series of photographs where he placed himself as an English dandy at the centre of a Victorian salon: “It’s about my own body image and power as a disabled black man. In the 19th century, to be at the centre of power and luxury would not have been possible. I enjoyed the fantasy: rewriting, recreating and re-enacting history.”

Given the topicality of a black man at the centre of power, Shonibare gives his verdict on Barack Obama’s victory: “This is a sign that society is moving beyond bigotry. I want to see more equilibrium. Women, black people, disabled people: we are all the same. Soon we won’t have barriers of race, gender or sexuality in front of us.”

He laughs when asked why he accepted his MBE: “My work is critical of the establishment, so to be made a Member of the British Empire is ironic. Turning it down has become a cliché. I realised that the most controversial thing would be to accept it.

“My father was a lawyer and was very conservative. He disapproved when I became an artist until I got invited to a party at Windsor Castle. Now a mid-career retrospective of my work is being held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney until June. Then it’s travelling to the Brooklyn Museum and then to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. So my career is going quite well.”

He acknowledges the role that the disability arts organisation Shape Arts, based in Kentish Town, north London, played in his early career: “I worked for Shape three days a week, running workshops on singing, dancing or visual arts for disabled and older people in day centres and hospitals. The job meant I could afford to rent a studio and it gave me organisational and fundraising skills.”

He has now bought a warehouse in a vibrant area of east London, to use as a space to give other artists the chance to show their work and as a forum for ideas and discussion.

He wants to give other people some of the opportunities he has had.

Never mind joining a movement; it looks like Yinka Shonibare MBE might be starting his own.