Wind Sculpture III (one in a series of nine)

Yinka Shonibare CBE's work Wind Sculpture III harnesses the wind and freezes it in a moment in time. The artwork manifests as a large three dimensional, hand-painted piece of fabric that appears to be moving in reaction to natural elements in the surrounding environment.

Shonibare often uses patterns normally associated with African identity. The fabric portrayed in his work has a complicated history, in terms of its origin and its movement along trade routes: it was originally designed as an Indonesian fabric and was then sold into the African market, where it came to represent African culture. This intersection of cultural backgrounds is a perfect metaphor for the multi-layered identities in the world today, which the artist views as a network of artificial constructs.