What made you decide to become an artist?
Well, I was good at doing art at school. I enjoyed doing it so much and I decided to carry on - plus, I didn’t want to do something that my parents understood. I come from a very conventional Nigerian middle class family. My father was a corporate lawyer and my siblings are surgeons, a dentist and a banker respectively, so I chose to do something completely different.
“It probably started with the Impressionists”
I appreciate art a lot and my interest in art really began by looking at the work of other artists. I would say that like most people, it probably started with the Impressionists and Cezanne, Van Gogh and then people like Picasso and then Pop Art. I thought I’d like to do some of that myself.
How has your art evolved as a result?
The more I’ve studied art, the more I’ve realised that art does not happen in a vacuum. There’s usually some kind of historical context to it. So I began to also be interested in current affairs and politics, and literature, music and dance, and then I started making links between all of those artform areas, from the actual artforms themselves to the social and historical context in which they happen.
Images of End of Empire - your commission for 14-18 NOW and Turner Contemporary to commemorate the centenary of World War One - have recently been added to our collection. Can you talk us through the work?
It’s an installation featuring sculptures of two men dressed in Victorian clothes made out of African textiles. They are on a see-saw and they’ve got globe heads. Each side represents the opposing sides in the First World War. The see-saw moves gradually, so they reach upon to kind of balance and then they unbalance again, which is what all opposing sides have to confront. I guess it’s a piece which tries to explore the ideas around negotiation and confrontation.
The British Library is also exhibiting alongside End of Empire at Turner Contemporary. What themes does it explore?
“The work is celebratory of British immigrants”
It’s a big installation featuring a library of 6,500 books. The books have the names of immigrants on the spine - British immigrants. At the moment we have the 'Brexit' debate and there’s a fear of immigrants, but the work is really celebratory of British immigrants who have done a lot for Britain and achieved a lot. But the Library does also show the names of people opposed to immigration, so it’s kind of showing you the two sides of the story really. As an installation, it’s visually compelling because of the scale of it.
What are you working on at the moment?
Well at the moment I’m looking at belief, generally, and religion. I’m looking at African religions and also Christianity. I’m looking at the religions that form the identity of someone like myself who is of African origin but also colonised by the British. I’m looking at the belief systems of both cultures and creating some artworks from that.
I’ve got a show at Yale Centre for British Art and another opening at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London later this month. Then I’ve got a number of group shows around the world in different places featuring some of my older works.
View all images by Yinka Shonibare MBE
Yinka Shonibare MBE is exhibiting at Turner Contemporary, Margate until 30 October, and Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut until 11 December 2016.
His solo exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London opens from 28 September until 5 November 2016.
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Images from top: Girl Balancing Knowledge, 2015, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, Photo: Stephen White; Dorian Gray (Scene 6), 2001, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Fake Death Picture (The Suicide - Manet), 2011, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and James Cohan Gallery, New York; Emancipated Woman, 2015, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, Photo: Stephen White; End of Empire, 2016, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Turner Contemporary, Margate, Photo: Stephen White; The British Library, 2014 (detail), Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, Photo: Jonathan Bassett; Rose of Lima, 2016, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016, Image courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Love in a Time of War 1, 2015, Yinka Shonibare MBE © Yinka Shonibare MBE, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016.