Public art in London

YINKA SHONIBARE'S "Nelson’s ship in a bottle", the latest piece of art to be installed on the large empty plinth at the northwest corner of London’s Trafalgar Square, is both witty and wise. A precisely detailed model of Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, is mounted inside a perspex bottle like a seaside souvenir on a mantlepiece, its sails vibrantly coloured. The distinctive sailcloth is something of a trademark for Mr Shonibare, a British artist of Nigerian descent. He loves the fact that textiles which seem distinctively African and artisanal are an industrial product of world trade, inspired by batiks of East Asia and manufactured in Dutch factories.

The colourful super-souvenir embraces the square’s current role as a tourist attraction. It also provides an emblem of contemporary London’s diasporan diversity which sets off the imperial history those tourists see showcased in the square’s greyer, more permanent statuary. But there is continuity as well as counterpoint; a healthy stone’s throw from the front of South Africa House, scene of years of anti-apartheid vigils, the new Victory speaks to the Royal Navy’s suppression of the slave trade during its post-Trafalgar hegemony. The artist’s initials, emblazoned on the bottle’s wax seal, have the letters MBE after them, acknowledging the fact that he was honoured as a member of the most excellent order of the British empire in 2004.

To fit a ship into a bottle is always a little magical. To squeeze a wealth of reference, symbolism, history and charm in there too is true artistry.