Engaging Black European Spaces and Postcolonial Dialogues through Public Art: Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle

Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle temporarily disrupted the colonial narrative of Trafalgar Square by inserting a Black diasporic perspective into public space. The installation, featuring sails made from African textiles and displayed on the Fourth Plinth (2010–2012), challenged Britain’s normative historical representation. Later moved to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, it serves as a permanent postcolonial dialogue. This study analyzes Shonibare’s work through its transnational identity references, linking 19th-century diasporic emergence to contemporary negotiations of space and power.

Shirey, H. (2019). Engaging Black European Spaces and Postcolonial Dialogues through Public Art: Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle. Open Cultural Studies, 3(1), 362–372. https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2019-0031