polity united kingdom victorianconcept:era contemporary
Nelson's Ship in a Bottle
Large-scale sculpture by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, 2010. A 1:29 scale replica of HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar) enclosed in a giant glass bottle, its 37 sails made from Dutch wax-printed fabric. Commissioned for the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London (2010–2012). Subsequently acquired by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Scholarly Significance
Add Shonibare's Fourth Plinth commission as a key contemporary African diasporic artwork addressing colonialism and empire.
Notes
- ·Commissioned by the Fourth Plinth Programme, Greater London Authority; sited on the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, from May 2010 to January 2012.
- ·The Fourth Plinth was originally intended for an equestrian statue of William IV; since 1999 it has hosted rotating contemporary art commissions.
- ·Shonibare's 37 sails replicate the battle-rigging of HMS Victory; each is cut from Dutch wax-print fabric — manufactured in the Netherlands and UK but sold throughout West Africa as an index of African identity.
- ·The Dutch wax fabric is central to Shonibare's conceptual programme: it embodies the colonial entanglement of African, European, and Asian trade and cultural exchange.
- ·The work situates itself in the space of British imperial memory (Trafalgar Square celebrates Nelson's 1805 victory over Napoleon) and asks whose history is commemorated — and whose labour is unacknowledged.
- ·Acquired by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, in 2012; it is displayed near the museum's Nelson collections.
- ·The work was co-commissioned with the Art Fund, which facilitated the acquisition.