By Juno Kelly.

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In 1976, Trinidad-born filmmaker, Horace Ové, produced Pressure, a film centred around the life of a young black man in England in the early '70s. The film, which won numerous awards and has retained its cultural resonance to this day, was the first ever feature film directed by a black man.

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Horace and his Irish socialist partner raised their son, Zak Ové, in their North London home, where culture, politics and identity were widely talked about topics. Despite art often not having been considered a viable career option in the '80s, Zac became an artist, creatively focusing on his Trinidadian ancestry, with specific reference to the way mask culture served as a means of freeing people from oppression via cultural expression and rebellion.

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In perhaps his biggest project yet, Zak has curated an exhibition at London's Somerset House, dedicated to Black British identity. Titled Get Up, Stand Up Now, the exhibit features over 100 artists whose work explores heritage, blackness and the impact the Windrush generation had on British creativity.

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The show includes work by a multitude of artists, from fashion designers Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Mowalola, to Jenn Nkiru, who worked on the Carters' Ape Shit music video, which saw Beyonce and Jay-Z's creative genius deployed into a traditionally white space, the Louvre, just as this exhibit sees black British creativity takeover Somerset house.

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Zak Ové's masks also feature heavily throughout, as do works by young artist Rhea Storr, who, through digital recordings, examines the complexity of belonging to two different cultures. The exhibit is, in many ways, an ode to the Windrush generation, and a critique of the Windrush scandal that occurred under Theresa May's tory administration last year, "I’m just so proud to be giving the recognition to my father and his creative peers, all members of the Windrush generation, that they thoroughly deserve," the artist explained. Read the rest of our interview with Ové below.

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LOVE: Such a wide range of artists' work is showcased in the exhibit, what was the selection process like?

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Zak Ové: I started by looking at my father Horace’s archive. He created his first film [Baldwin’s Nigger] 50 years ago. I was born into an artistic family and brought up in an extended artistic family. Many practitioners of the Windrush generation became parental to me. Quite literally, I began with all of them.

I started to explore who their work was talking to, the next generation of artistic cousins who were inspired by them, and took forward similar themes. It included musicians, filmmakers, writers; and not just from Britain. And then further down the line, today’s brilliant young talent who have been influenced by the children of my father’s generation. Each generation stands on the shoulders of their elders. Regardless of age and boundaries, I realised there was a shared experience throughout these different mediums and timelines, and throughout the diaspora. And it just excited me. This is why the show is thematic, rather than chronological.

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I identified and invited artists who have, similarly, made a significant contribution to shaping this country’s creatives and the cultural landscape in general. Pioneering work that challenges the systems of power and representation and continues to change the consciousness of society today, through perpetual agitation.

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LOVE: A lot of questions are arising at the moment regarding representation in the arts, what do you think can be done to increase inclusivity?

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ZO: We should have more shows about Black creativity in the UK, exploring the dialogue between Black artists and how they are communicating the Black experience.

There have been some exhibitions on Black creativity before, but often they aren’t given such a big platform or even if they are, it’s cyclic, a programming trend that’s then forgotten again for another decade. For instance, I remember in 2005, there was Kerry James Marshall at the Camden Arts Centre, Back to Black at the Whitechapel and Africa Remix at Hayward Gallery. All fantastic shows but then there was no follow up straight afterwards. I would advocate that it needs to be more consistent.

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Somerset House has hosted the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair every year since 2013, I first met the Somerset House team through it. I presented my large-scale installation Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness in the courtyard as part of 1-54 in 2016.

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Since the launch of 1-54 and Soul of a Nation at the Tate in 2017, I’ve seen audience attendance grow to these shows, which makes other institutions sit up and take note of the necessity of them. I’m really excited by the prospect of programmers writing it into their future scripts on a more regular basis.

It is, undoubtedly, Black British creatives who have led the charge in inspiring society to embrace our music, our language, our fashion, our art. I’m a passionate believer in radical integration and it’s through culture that we become more harmonious and multicultural as a collective British people, now and in the future.

I’m just so proud to be giving the recognition to my father and his creative peers, all members of the Windrush generation, that they thoroughly deserve, and show how they have indelibly impacted the cultural fabric of our country.

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LOVE: The exhibition focuses on black British identity. Who are some up and coming black creatives that we should keep an eye on?

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ZO: I’ve selected contemporary works in the exhibition from incredibly talented creatives including Ronan McKenzie, GAIKA, Jenn Nkiru, Mowalola Ogunlesi, Rhea Storr, Braford Young and many more. What I’m more interested in than selecting highlights, though, is the overall impact of placing contemporary works alongside ancestral works of the last 50 years, and how we’re able to look at the symposium of old and new. By doing this, audiences can look afresh at the issues that drive the work, and explore which issues are pertinent time and time again, over a 50 year period.

LOVE: What's next?

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ZO: The year ahead is an exciting one for sure. My installation of 40 graphite sculptures, “The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness” opens in July in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden at LACMA, Los Angeles, and will be on view until 3 November. The sculptures have now travelled from Somerset House, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, New Art Centre - Roche Court and The San Francisco Civic Centre - so it’s an incredible moment for them to be on display in LA.

I’ll also be showing one of my biggest sculptures Autonomous Morris in the Sculpture Park at Frieze London 2019. I grew up around Regent’s Park so it’s been great revisiting to install there.

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I’m looking forward to time in the studio, I have some more commissions in the pipeline..z and of course, I’ll be continuing spreading the word for Get Up Stand Up Now.

Zak Ové is Curator of 'Get Up, Stand Up Now', in association with Hennessy 12 June - 15 September, Somerset House, somersethouse.org.uk

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thelovemagazine.co.uk/article/an-interview-with-zak-ove-curator-of-get-up-stand-up-now

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