I like Yinkas Concept about SELF and LANDSCAPE or rather his “selfies”. Most people associate it with an exhibition or theatre production but several also linked it to a museum or stately home. In fact Shonibare draws on all these as well as other, more literary sources. The work is deliberately ambiguous in its form, content and context, using a hybrid of styles and references and blurring the lines between art and commercial photography.
. In such works as Diary of a Victorian Dandy (1998; based on the narrative works of British artist William Hogarth), Shonibare created a series of photographs featuring himself as a dandy in a variety of tableaux. He also portrayed the protagonist of an Oscar Wilde novel in the photographic series Dorian Gray (2001). Many of Shonibare’s works made reference to paintings by earlier artists, among them Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Francisco de Goya, and Leonardo da Vinci. In the 21st century, Shonibare expanded his repertoire of techniques to include films (Un ballo in maschera, 2004, and Odile and Odette, 2005).
In 2004 Shonibare was nominated for the Turner Prize, and in 2005—somewhat ironically, considering his exploration of colonialism and empire—he was appointed MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire); thereafter he presented himself professionally as “Yinka Shonibare MBE.” In 2010 his Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle won a commission to occupy Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. This competition evinced Shonibare’s growing interest in public art.
