Temitayo Shonibare

Temitayo Shonibare is an artist and designer. Central to her practice is questioning, provoking, and challenging societal conventions and the way we are. Conducted as social experiments, she brings the interiority of daily encounters to public space using her body as the medium. Through staging actions that disrupt socialized norms, she plays with the imagined boundaries between public and private spaces – mentally, physically, and digitally questioning who is and what makes up the public. She seeks to expand the site of art making from a physically grounded space to a relational encounter between individuals, affecting how viewers-cum-participants experience the work.

HOW DOES YOUR SUBMITTED WORK RESPOND TO THE CIRCA 20:25 MANIFESTO?
This excerpt from ‘by divine decree!!’ draws from the 2020 #EndSARS protests, where Nigerian youth mobilized against state-sanctioned violence. It illuminates the resonant, radical resistance that echoes not only within Nigerian communities but also among Queer people and youth globally, all pushing back against oppressive systems. The work destabilizes the presumptive gazes of Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike by contrasting archival footage of Nigerian Pentecostal church services with scenes from American voguing ballrooms (underscoring the campy jubilance that informs both ceremonial sites). When simply existing is under threat, I turn to “digital madness” as methodology: chaotic, vibrant, and defiantly alive.

IF AWARDED THE £30,000 CIRCA PRIZE, WHAT 10-MINUTE WORK WOULD YOU CREATE – AND HOW WOULD IT EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF REFUGIA?
My site‑specific proposal leverages Piccadilly Lights, a distinct advertising hub, to stage a live performance/spectatorship study. Presented as a game show, the work seeks to redistribute funds through play, by gamifying philanthropy, echoing how wealth has become a spectacle online. Foregrounding human nature and the dynamics of perception, members of the public will witness how high net worth individuals respond under real-time observation. Situated within Piccadilly Circus’s relentless advertising pulse, and mimicking its ad logic, it explores the extent to which the subjects might be compelled through visibility and playful provocation to contribute capital meaningfully.

FOLLOW TEMITAYO SHONIBARE ON INSTAGRAM

Funding for the CIRCA PRIZE is generated entirely by the #CIRCAECONOMY, a circular model that reinvests proceeds from affordable art sold on CIRCA.ART into new public art commissions, charitable causes, art education and prizes. Since launching in 2020, the initiative has raised over £1 Million, placing artists and communities at the centre of an economy that continually reinvests in the future of art and culture.

The CIRCA PRIZE 2025 winners will be revealed LIVE in Piccadilly Circus on Monday 13 October, with a special 30-minute award ceremony starting at 20:00 BST. Don’t miss it!