The process of researching and making Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle led Shonibare to produce a series of related works, beginning with Nelson’s Jacket and Fanny’s Dress, inspired by the often-overlooked relationship between Nelson and his estranged wife Frances.
Nelson’s Jacket also features in Fake Death Pictures, a series of five photographic works, each a freely adapted re-enactment of a suicide from the history of European art (do you recognise any of the sources?). Fanny’s Dress is worn in a related film work, Addio del Passato, based on the aria of the same name from Verdi’s opera La Traviata. The collected Nelson works were first shown at James Cohan Gallery, New York, in 2011.
Finally, in 2013, Shonibare produced the first in a series of painted fibreglass Wind Sculptures that invoke the sails of a ship.
Nelson’s Jacket also features in Fake Death Pictures, a series of five photographic works, each a freely adapted re-enactment of a suicide from the history of European art (do you recognise any of the sources?). Fanny’s Dress is worn in a related film work, Addio del Passato, based on the aria of the same name from Verdi’s opera La Traviata. The collected Nelson works were first shown at James Cohan Gallery, New York, in 2011.
Finally, in 2013, Shonibare produced the first in a series of painted fibreglass Wind Sculptures that invoke the sails of a ship.
Yinka Shonibare, Nelson's Jacket (2011)
Yinka Shonibare, Fanny's Dress (2011)
Yinka Shonibare, Fake Death Picture 1 (2011) Digital chromogenic print
Leonardo Alenza, Satire of Romantic Suicide (1839)
Yinka Shonibare, Fake Death Picture 2 (2011) Digital chromogenic print
Édouard Manet, Le Suicidé (c.1877)
Yinka Shonibare, Fake Death Picture 3 (2011) Digital chromogenic print
Henry Wallis, Chatterton (RA 1856) Tate
Yinka Shonibare, Fake Death Picture 4 (2011) Digital chromogenic print
Yinka Shonibare, Fake Death Picture 5 (2011) Digital chromogenic print
Yinka Shonibare, Wind Sculpture (2013) photo by Jonty Wilde
Yinka Shonibare, Wind Sculpture (2013)
Yinka Shonibare, Material II (2018) painted bronze, 99cm high
Yinka Shonibare, Wind Sculpture (SG) I (2018) Doris C Freedman Plaza, New York
Nelson's Trafalgar coat
Arthur William Devis, The Death of Nelson (1806) National Maritime Museum
Nelson's Trafalgar coat (conservation)
William Bromley after AW Devis, The Death of Nelson (1812) published by Josiah Boydell
Bee Gees, Trafalgar US tour advertisement (1971)
