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\nCarnival sculptures at the British Museum\n

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\n\nPublisher:\n\nThe British Museum\n\n\n
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\nFollow the making of Zak Ove’s spectacular stilt walker sculptures inspired by carnival and created for the British Museum. The sculptures are on display in the Great Court until 13 September 2015 as part of the British Museum’s season...\nFollow the making of Zak Ove’s spectacular stilt walker sculptures inspired by carnival and created for the British Museum. The sculptures are on display in the Great Court until 13 September 2015 as part of the British Museum’s season Celebrating Africa Zak Ové (b. 1966) lives and works in London and Trinidad. He works between sculpture, film and photography. His work portrays the emancipation of personal existence through incarnation with an ‘other self’, showing us the power of play to free an individual from the contained experience of the self. This in turn is filtered through his own personal and cultural upbringing, growing up in London and Trinidad. Zak’s Moko Jumbie carnival characters draw on African mythology and stories of slave resistance which have fed the roots of contemporary carnival from Trinidad to Notting Hill. As Zak says, 'What I’ve tried to do is to impregnate mythologies with new materials, dialogue and language that give them a new lease of life into a new millennium. How do I take African ancestry and make it Africa’s tomorrow? At the heart of my fascination with Trinidad carnival was its defiance and act of revolution in how its people, transformed by costume and masquerade were able to find a sense of emancipation for themselves from a colonised situation. So what I’m suggesting is that by wearing costume and freeing one’s mind I can be anything.' 'British Museum Curator] Chris [Spring] had come to me because I was somewhat of an expert on Trinidad Carnival – I’d been documenting and shooting for at least 10 years prior and I come from family that were very much involved in the making of costumes and the making of carnival. My grandparents ran a big hardware store in the centre of Port of Spain that’s been in existence since the late 1800s – and that supplied all the materials for the Obeah practitioners, for, if you like, people that were doing witchcraft. … The response I’ve got from the community in Trinidad has been amazing.' ‘I’m the son of Britain’s first black filmmaker who, during my own childhood, worked incredibly hard to pioneer the roots of Trinidad carnival back in Africa, back in India, back in Spain and across Europe, so I was very fortunate to see all the stem lines that were a part of that... in terms of that becoming a very multicultural experience.' There will be a longer film on Zak's work available here soon – subscribe to our channel now so you never miss an update;\n
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Resource Details

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Curator Rating
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Educator Rating
Not yet Rated
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Grade
6th - 11th
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Subjects
All Subjects
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Media Type
Instructional Videos
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Source:
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Date
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2019
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Audiences
For Teacher Use
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Educator Ratings

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