Hail the New Prophets
2021
Bold Tendencies Commission, Peckham, London, UK
Bold Tendencies summer exhibition 'Arcadia' will saw Offeh realise his first major public sculpture.
Hail the New Prophets consists of a large sculpture called, The Akomfo Mothership. The Akomfo are the healers, priests/priestesses and prophets of the Akan Akom tradition, found in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. The Mothership manifests in a design that is a based on Afrofuturist prophet and Jazz musician Sun Ra’s ship from the 1970s film Space is the Place. Sun Ra’s ship was designed by Whit Mather in 1974 in featured in the film set in Oakland California. Hail the New Prophets, will be supported by a programme of performances, readings and workshops that will animate the, The Akomfo Mothership.
Sun Ra’s cosmic trademark reflected a visionary philosophy that promoted self-determination through the power of myth-making and prophecy — responsive to his own experience of discrimination as a Black man in America.
Drawing from Sun Ra’s Afrofuturist mythology, Hail the New Prophets seeks new prophecies, sonic futurisms, speculative fictions and visions of the future. In response to the current crisis’ of today, Hail the New Prophets reaches out to audiences asking them to look beyond the present and project themselves into the future with prophecies of hope, fears and desires. Hail the New Prophets is an invitation to all ages to speculate and imagine the new alternative realities of the near and distance future. Drawing on rich histories of Afrofuturism, speculative fictions, Sci-fi and Utopian thinking, the project gathered contributions which were showcased as part of the commission.
Photos: Damian Griffiths
– Links
Art Fund - Harold Offeh on Afrofuturism and the power of prophesy
