Born: London, 1962

Yinka Shonibare has created a nuclear family of astronauts, equipped for an interplanetary holiday. But instead of futuristic material, their spacesuits are made from highly patterned African textiles. The bringing together of opposing elements and the meanings they might carry is a key strategy in Shonibare's work.

In Vacation and other works his use of African textiles has enabled him to raise questions about the relationship between high and low art, ethnic identity and ideas of home and authenticity. He has commented, 'Because I was brought up in Lagos and London . . . it is extremely difficult for me to have one view of culture'. Through research the artist discovered that the history of the so-called 'Dutch wax' print renders it problematic as a symbol of authentic African identity. It originated in Indonesian batik techniques, which were later industrialised by Dutch colonisers. The British copied them and exported prints from Manchester to West Africa, where - ironically - they became popular in the 1960s as part of a postcolonial celebration of African identity. Shonibare shows the fabric to be both fake and authentic, ready-made and original.