V for victory: Artist Yinka Shonibare's journey to the fourth plinth

Artist Yinka Shonibare, photographed in his London studio with a scaled-down model of Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, the work to be installed on the fourth plinth. Behind him is Girl On Flying Machine (2008)
Photograph: Andy Hall

Reverend on Ice (2005), Yinka Shonibare's riff on Raeburn’s classic painting, with the addition of Dutch wax fabrics
Photograph: courtesy of the artist/Stephen Friedman Gallery

The painted installation, Black Gold, shown at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in 2006
Photograph: Graeme Robertson

An photograph from Yinka Shonibare's 1998 series, Diary of a Victorian Dandy, starring the artist
Photograph: Courtesy of the artist/Stephen Friedman Gallery

How to Blow up Two Heads at Once (Gentlemen), exhibited at the Moscow biennale of contemporary arts, 2009
Photograph: Rex Features

The Swing (after Fragonard), exhibited at the Turner prize exhibition at Tate Britain in 2004
Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features

The salon of the Victorian Philanthrope, which was exhibited at the Pompidou centre in Paris as part of Africa Remix, the first exhibition of contemporary African art in France in 2005
Photograph: Pierre Verdy/AFP

The Christmas tree Yinka Shonibare created for Tate Britain. The tree was made out of 102 branches wrapped in shredded batik
Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters

A model of Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, the work that is to stand on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. It is a scale replica of Nelson's ship HMS Victory, in a giant glass bottle with sails made of patterned textiles commonly associated with Africa and bought from Brixton market in London
Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images