Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

This conversation with artist Yenka Shonibari explores how the Georgians have influenced modern art

and how Yinka's own work has explored ideas of race, class, and the meaning of cultural and

national definitions.

And so, Yinka, I thought it might be appropriate to just start with where we are

sitting in this amazing room and in this amazing building and ask you for your thoughts about having

your artwork displayed here at Kensington Palace, but also the opportunity to be here and speak

this evening. What does it mean for you to come to this place? Well, I mean, that's a, you know, that's not an easy one to answer, but, well, because of the, you know, the history and the history of empire and so on.

I've worked with that theme in my work for a long time.

I started as a rebel, and now I'm being sort of embraced by the establishment.

So I guess it's okay.

Yes, you are, in fact, Yinka Shonabari, R-A-M-B-E.

So you have these initials appended to your name.

So what does it mean to you to be embraced in that sense and still retain, if I might

put it this way, a kind of rebellious character?

Do you find it possible to maintain both of those identities simultaneously?

It's one of those very strange things where you desperately want to be part of the establishment,

but you desperately want to be rebellious against the establishment.

So you're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.

...