Message in a Bottle

Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare

The new artwork on the Fourth Plinth of Trafalgar Square in London is a giant scale replica of HMS Victory, in a bottle. The ship's enormous sails are made of the richly patterned textiles commonly associated with African dress. These fabrics are, in fact, inspired by Indonesian batik design, mass produced by the Dutch and sold to the colonies in West Africa. By the 1960s the material was popularly assimilated in Africa and became symbolic of African identity and independence. Tying together historical and global threads and traversing oceans and continents, this work considers the complexity of British expansion in trade and Empire, made possible through the freedom of the seas that Nelson’s victory provided.
"This piece is an expression of Nelson's legacy, a legacy which has contributed to the diversity of this city." says Yinka Shonibare.

Pentecostal Thoughts

Tiziano Vecellio: Pentecost - Detail

Pentecost - the descent of the Holy Spirit from Heaven

Birth - the arrival of the Spirit to the body

Creation - the presence of the Spirit in the work

Death - the departure of the Spirit from the body

Visions of Satan

Black leopard bares its teeth in the wildlife shot by Jonathan Griffiths

Satan chewing the naked sinners in the Last Judgement by Fra Angelico

The Winner Is: Glamour, Elegance, Beauty

Threshold of a new era

David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg: "until today we were rivals and now we are colleagues".

Dreadful Boys

Ahmed Farooqui The Fall

"Panic is in the air over children - dreadful creatures that we can't control and who frighten us, drugged and dangerous. Working class white boys who lack ambition, black boys abandoned by their fathers, muslim boys that are waiting to blow us up."

My Hero

Tom Waits

Because he is another, unique universe

Seed Bank in the Wind

British designer Thomas Heatherwick has created the British Pavilion of the Shanghai Expo 2010: a 20 metre high building made up of 60,000 transparent acrylic filaments, each of which holds a seed from Kew Gardens' huge Millennium Seed Bank – a worldwide project to preserve a quarter of the world's plant species.

The 7.5 metre long spikes sway gently in the breeze

Microcosm

Kew Gardens Millenium Seed Bank has embarked on a mission to save seed of as many plant species as possible. The mission to save seeds in our time of dangerous climate change is very important - since virtually all life on earth is dependent on plants and each little seed is a microcosm of the plant itself.

Seed of Castilleja flower, popularly known as Indian paintbrush or prairie-fire

Pollen of Helleborus orientalis or Lenten rose

Eastern sun (Scutellaria orientalis) seed

Seed of the Paulownia tree

Electron microphotos of seeds preserved at the Kew Gardens Millennium Seed Bank.

Firework Architecture at Shanghai Expo 2010

Chinese Firework

Hungarian Pavilion - Architect Tamás Lévai

British Pavilion - Architect Thomas Heatherwick