{"id":1052,"date":"2025-06-20T06:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T13:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2025-06-20T06:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T13:45:16","slug":"african-mythology-and-ancestry-merge-in-zak-oves-exuberant-sculptures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1052","title":{"rendered":"African Mythology and Ancestry Merge in Zak Ov\u00e9\u2019s Exuberant Sculptures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"African<\/p>\n

Merging themes of interstellar travel and cultural convergences, Zak Ov\u00e9<\/a> creates large-scale sculptures and multimedia installations that explore African ancestry, traditions, and history. The British-Trinidadian artist\u2019s practice is deeply rooted in the narratives of the African diaspora, focusing on traditions of masquerade. He delves into its role in performance and ceremony, as well as masks as potent instruments for self-emancipation and cultural resistance.<\/p>\n

Ov\u00e9\u2019s interdisciplinary work spans sculpture, painting, film, and photography, exploring links between mythology, oral histories, and speculative futures. \u201cHis sculptures often incorporate symbols, iconography, and materials drawn from African, Caribbean, and diasporic traditions, merging them with modern aesthetics to celebrate the continuity and adaptability of culture,\u201d his studio says.<\/p>\n

\"a
Detail of \u201cBlack Starliner\u201d (2025), stainless steel, aluminium, fiberglass, and resin, 40 x 22.6 x 27.4 feet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ov\u00e9 often delves into the relationship between contemporary lived experiences and the spirit world, like in \u201cMoko Jumbie\u201d or a glass mosaic installation in London titled \u201cJumbie Jubilation.\u201d In these works, the artist brings an ancestral spirit rooted in African and Caribbean folklore known as a Jumbie to life as a spectral dancer, cloaked in banana leaves with a torso of a golden, radiant face.<\/p>\n

The motif of rockets has emerged in Ove\u2019s recent installations, like \u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d and \u201cBlack Starliner,\u201d which feature totem-like stacks of African tribal masks and lattice-like Veve symbols\u2014intricate designs employed in the Vodou religion to represent spiritual deities known as Lwa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d combines architectural elements referencing the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and a ring of Cadillac lights nodding to Detroit, \u201cMotor City.\u201d The crowning element is a giant Mende tribal mask that glows when the 26-foot-tall sculpture is illuminated at night, with a pulsing rhythm suggestive of a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

The title is also a reference to the iconic 1975 album by Parliament-Funkadelic, Mothership Connection<\/em>, in with outer space is a through-line in the group\u2019s celebration of what BBC journalist Frasier McAlpine<\/a> described as a response to the waning optimism of the post-civil rights era. Mothership Connection <\/em>soared at a time when \u201cflamboyant imagination (and let\u2019s be frank, exceptional funkiness) was both righteous and joyful,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d (2022), stainless steel, bronze, resin, and mixed media, 9 x 1.8 meters. Installed at Frieze London 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ov\u00e9 echoes this exuberance through vibrant colors, repetition, and monumental scale. Library Street Collective, which exhibited \u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d on the grounds of The Shepherd<\/a> in Detroit late last year, <\/em>describes the work as a nod \u201cto a future where Black people are included in all possible frames of reference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a monumental assembly of African masked figures titled \u201cThe Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness,\u201d Ov\u00e9 conceived of 40 graphite sculptures organized in a militaristic grid, each six-and-a-half feet tall, that have marched across the grounds of Somerset House, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, San Francisco City Hall, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

The title of this piece references two groundbreaking works in Black history\u2014Ralph Ellison\u2019s 1952 novel Invisible Man<\/em>, which was the first novel by a Black author to with the National Book Award, and Ben Jonson\u2019s 1605 play The Masque of Blackness, <\/em>noteworthy for being the first time blackface makeup was used in a stage production.<\/p>\n

\"an
\u201cInvisible Man and the Masque of Blackness\u201d (2016), graphite. Installed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ov\u00e9 reclaims and reframes dominant narratives about African history, culture, and the diaspora, interrogating the past to posit what he calls \u201cpotential futures,\u201d where possibilities transform into realities. \u201cBy fusing ancestral wisdom with Afrofuturist<\/a> ideals, Ov\u00e9 ensures that the voices of the past remain integral to shaping the futures we envision,\u201d his studio says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d will be exhibited later this summer and fall at 14th Street Square in New York City\u2019s Meatpacking District, accompanied by a gallery show at Chelsea Market. Dates are currently being confirmed, and you can follow updates on Ov\u00e9\u2019s Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cMoko Jumbie\u201d (2021), mixed media, overall 560 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cMoko Jumbie\u201d (2021), mixed media, overall 560 centimeters, installed at Art Gallery of Ontario, commissioned with funds from David W. Binet and Ray & Georgina Williams, 2021. Photo courtesy of AGO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cJumbie Jubilation\u201d (2024), glass mosaic panels, dimensions vary around 11.5 x 1.2 meters per panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cJumbie Jubilation\u201d (2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cVirulent Strain\u201d (2022), graphite, 22-carat gold leaf, and bronze, 120 centimeters in diameter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"an
\u201cInvisible Man and the Masque of Blackness\u201d (2016), graphite. Installed at Somerset House, London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cBlack Starliner\u201d (2025), stainless steel, aluminium, fiberglass, and resin, 40 x 22.6 x 27.4 feet. Installed at Louvre Abu Dhabi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cThe Mothership Connection\u201d (2022), stainless steel, bronze, resin, and mixed media, 9 x 1.8 meters. Photo courtesy of Library Street Collective<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article African Mythology and Ancestry Merge in Zak Ov\u00e9\u2019s Exuberant Sculptures<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merging themes of interstellar travel and cultural convergences, Zak Ov\u00e9 creates large-scale sculptures and multimedia installations that explore African ancestry, traditions, and history. The British-Trinidadian artist\u2019s practice is deeply rooted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}