Yinka Shonibare CBE, Decolonised Structures, 2022-23. Fibreglass sculptures, hand-painted with Dutch wax pattern, gold leaf and wooden plinths. Dimensions variable. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London and New York, James Cohan Gallery, New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York.
[Stephen White & Co © Yinka Shonibare CBE]

Royal Academician Yinka Shonibare has come a long way since his 2010 Fourth Plinth sculpture Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, still among the favourites of the offerings that have graced a corner of Trafalgar Square.

That work referenced the history attached to the particular location, of course, if it did not aim to dominate the square in the same way as the 52-metre high granite and bronze column of Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.

Ahead of the artist’s first solo exhibition for more than 20 years in a London public institution, Shonibare said: “My work has always been about crossing boundaries; geographically, visually, historically, and conceptually.” And of his new show Suspended States, opening this week at the Serpentine, the 61-year-old London-born British-Nigerian added that it: “…addresses the suspension of boundaries, whether psychological, physical, or geographical… all boundaries of nationhood are in a state of suspense. This is an exhibition in which Western iconography is reimagined and interrogated, at a moment in history when nationalism, protectionism and hostility towards foreigners is on the rise”.

Sanctuary City (Chiswick Women’s Refuge), 2024. Courtesy Yinka Shonibare CBE and Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London and New York, James Cohan Gallery, New York, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York. [© Stephen White & Co]

And 32 years after his first showing at the Serpentine, its bosses Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist welcomed him back, referring to Shonibare’s “career-long interrogation of colonial histories and the legacies of public art”. They said his work epitomised the galleries’ mission of building new connections between artists and society.

And what connections there are!

With many and varied works – sculptures, quilts, woodcut prints and more – its themes aim to cover issues from colonial power and imperialism to migration, refuge, and shelter.

Two new large-scale installations are Sanctuary City and The War Library.

The former has miniature representations of buildings that have been used for refuge, highlighting the shelter crisis, which Shonibare sees as “one of the most pressing political concerns right now”.

The latter, the latest addition to his “library” series, has 5,000 titles, bound in Shonibare’s familiar Dutch wax print – itself a symbol of cultural interaction, clash, and complexity between Europe and Africa – with gold lettering on the spines. The “titles” include wars, battles and peace treaties.

A section drawing on the Mappa Mundi, “…reflects our contemporary concerns of fear of the stranger or ‘other’ which often leads to xenophobia”, Shonibare said.

And there is Decolonised Structures, his scaled-down “replicas” of London public monuments including those to Churchill, Victoria, Kitchener, Roberts, Pitt, et al, with the aim “…to question their continued presence in the public realm”, according to the Serpentine.

These are challenging themes, of course; but while they may be timely, there is a domestic three-and-a-bit-nation general election in the offing, and it may be Shonibare’s reputation that will be the most important element in securing success for Suspended States over the next 20 or so weeks.

In the meantime that international reputation is set for a boost later in the month with the artist exhibiting at the 2024 Venice Biennale, including at the Nigerian Pavilion as part of Nigerian Imaginary looking to that country’s present and future.

• Yinka Shonibare CBE: Suspended States is due to run at Serpentine South Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA until September 1. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/