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Yinka Shonibare

Kirsty Young interviews artist Yinka Shonibare, who chooses the eight records that he would take with him to a desert island.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the artist Yinka Shonibare MBE.

His work has populated museums around the globe, with a vivid, subversive and often tragi-comic presence; exploring themes of cultural identity, post colonialism and the impact of globalisation. A Turner Prize nominee in 2004, he has exhibited at the Venice Biennial and internationally.

His 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle' became his first public art commission when it was one of the art works chosen for the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.

Born in London, his parents moved the family back to Nigeria when he was three. Later he returned to Britain to finish his education but his plans to study art were brutally interrupted when he was 19 contracted the disease, Transverse Myelitis, which attacked his central nervous system and rendered him paralysed from the neck down. He had three years of intensive rehabilitation before beginning again at art school.

He went on to study at Goldsmiths and was part of the Young British Artist generation.

Producer: Sarah Taylor.

Available now

34 minutes

Last on

Fri 18 Mar 2016 09:00

Music Played

  • Aretha Franklin

    Rock Steady

    • Young, Gifted and Black.
    • Atlantic.
  • King Sunny Adé

    Synchro System

    • The Best of the Classic Years.
    • Shanachie.
  • Millie Small

    My Boy Lollipop

    • Young, Gifted and Black.
    • Sanctuary Records.
  • Fela Kuti

    Gentleman

    • Confusion/Gentleman.
    • Universal.
  • James Brown

    Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)

    • Sex Machine (The Very Best of James Brown).
    • Polydor.
  • Less McCann & Eddie Harris

    Compared to What (Live at Monteux Jazz Festival, 1969)

    • Hommage à Nesuhi.
    • Rhino Atlantic.
  • Giuseppe Verdi

    Addio del Passato

    Performer: Anna Netrebko.
    • La Traviata.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Marvin Gaye

      WhatÂ’s Going On

      • WhatÂ’s Going On.
      • Motown.
  • BOOK CHOICE

    Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

  • LUXURY ITEM

    Pen and paper

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Yinka Shonibare
Producer Sarah Taylor

Broadcasts

  • Sun 13 Mar 2016 11:15
  • Fri 18 Mar 2016 09:00

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