But it all begins with the curator's father, Horace Ové, who is widely known for creating the first feature film by a black British director, Pressure (which was ultimately released in 1976 after being shelved for a few years) – about a black British teenager and the racism he experiences. Zak Ové hopes the show will set the stage for a reassessment of his father's legacy. "I'm really excited that the public will be able to see my father's work again, or perhaps discover it," he says. "He was such a pioneer of his time."
As is Zak. In the Mothership room, seek out his sculpture Umbilical Progenitor, of a barefoot black astronaut carrying a child on its back that refers to African traditions of masquerades. The work, as does the room, invites now-and-next generations of creative black artists to use Afrofuturism as the voice and space of black power, a force that seems now undeniable. Nkiru's Black to Techno film closes with the line: "The black ecstatic cannot be contained." And then some.
