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Afrofuturism

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Praxis.

Praxis.

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Anyone familiar with Afrofuturism?

In general it's a pretty psychedelic aesthetic in any medium (literature, music, visual art, etc...), but I found the work of this particular artist to be phenomenal and couldn't help but share.

His name is Joshua Mays. Here's his tumblr page. I also highly recommend checking out the results that come up in a google image search.

8)
 
Very talented artist. Hope he gets the attention he deserves.
 
His work is amazing! This needs more attention!

Thanks for the links!

8)
 
Just being the devil's advocate here, but is his work really "afrofuturism"? It doesn't seem to incorporate aspects of african american history or culture, from what I've seen so far.
 
Afrofuturism is an umbrella-term for mediums that envision alternative scenarios (sci-fi, speculative fiction, fantasy, etc...) that center people of color, and often times offers some kind of social critique. Most sci-fi, fantasy, psychedelic art, etc... is very Euro-centric and so Afrofuturism applies to most things outside of that narrative. I would consider Joshua Mays a visionary artist first and foremost, but he falls under the umbrella of Afrofuturism because his work strictly centers Black people, specifically Black women.

Have you ever heard of Octavia Butler? She's one of the most well known Afrofuturist authors, and most of her books have nothing to do with Black history. She has one book about a modern Black women who gets stuck in a time loop and trapped in the era of antebellum slavery, but aside from that almost all of her work is entirely science fiction. Her last book is about vampires, and it was written almost 10 years before the whole vampire craze that Twilight started. I've never read or seen Twilight, but from what I understand it draws heavily on themes from Octavia Butler's vampire novel. She also writes about aliens, futuristic earth-based religious cults, psychics...things that don't really have anything to do with Black history. I'd definitely recommend checking out her work if you're interested in sci-fi with a bit of social/political commentary.
 
he falls under the umbrella of Afrofuturism because his work strictly centers Black people
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Then maybe my critique is of the movement itself. To say that a work centers black people simply because the person depicted in it is black reduces blackness to a state of skin tone and completely ignores what Afrofuturists really want to accentuate (that is, culture and reexamination of the past through a futurist lens, from what I've read).

The people in Mays' paintings are black, but are they African, African american, Thai,...? You can find black people in every country in the world, so there's really no connection between blackness and African-american-ness in particular unless some explicit cultural cues are added to the artwork. I don't think I see those cues in Mays' artwork (maybe I'm not looking closely enough), so it's hard to for me to say that his work is Afrofuturism as opposed to simply futurism.
 
hixidom said:
he falls under the umbrella of Afrofuturism because his work strictly centers Black people
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Then maybe my critique is of the movement itself. To say that a work centers black people simply because the person depicted in it is black reduces blackness to a state of skin tone and completely ignores what Afrofuturists really want to accentuate (that is, culture and reexamination of the past through a futurist lens, from what I've read).

The people in Mays' paintings are black, but are they African, African american, Thai,...? You can find black people in every country in the world, so there's really no connection between blackness and African-american-ness in particular unless some explicit cultural cues are added to the artwork. I don't think I see those cues in Mays' artwork (maybe I'm not looking closely enough), so it's hard to for me to say that his work is Afrofuturism as opposed to simply futurism.
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Afrofuturism isn't necessarily about accentuating or examining Black culture. Again to use Octavia Butler as an example, much of her work has very little to do with historical events; and yet her work is considered the epitome of Afrofuturist literature.

Blackness exists wherever there are Black people. It exists less as a biological distinction between skin color as it does a social construct that exists in relation to Whiteness. Afrofuturism is a response to anti-Blackness and the many ways that it manifests. Centering one's work around Black people, regardless of where they are from (only Mays can tell us that), is an intentional act that carries with it a certain amount of weight.

Also, depending on who you talk to, afrofuturism encompasses any medium that centers people of color and not just Black folks.

My point is that it can be any number of things, it's not limited to cultural cues or historical narratives--the whole point is to imagine something that transcends our current constructs surrounding politics, identity, race/class/gender, spirituality, etc... So much of the currently existing futurist mediums are incredibly limiting to the imagination, particularly if you're coming at them from the experiences of someone who is marginalized. Making visionary art that relates to Black people challenges the dominant narrative that currently exists; it pushes those boundaries simply by centering those who are normally not centered. In this way, I think his work is distinct when compared to say, Alex Grey--not to say that one is better than the other, but that each carries something different in the way they attempt to convey meaning.
 
Praxis. said:
Anyone familiar with Afrofuturism?

In general it's a pretty psychedelic aesthetic in any medium (literature, music, visual art, etc...), but I found the work of this particular artist to be phenomenal and couldn't help but share.
Click to expand...

I took a class last year about rap and hip hop origins, and we did discuss Afrofuturism in the context of music. Our favorite example to use was "Planet Rock" (or really any songs) by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force.

I definitely thought it was interesting stuff. We discussed one black cultural figure who was proposing that systemic racism might never end and that black people should begin seriously investigating building spaceships or space stations to go live on the Moon, Mars, or simply in outer space. I made an argument that the guy wasn't so serious about actually building space arks and that Afrofuturism here served as something of a metaphor for an ideological exodus from white culture (everyone coming together and "flying" away from the troubled past).

I don't think my class really understood what I was trying to say, so it wasn't discussed further. But I never forgot about this, and I still think that even though a lot of Afrofuturism might be just trying to secure a place for black people in science fiction, a significant part of it also deals with moving away from the past, using technology to encourage equality, and moving into an ideal, futuristic, post-racial age.
 
Labels in the art world as elsewhere are used to both identify and exclude. This guy's art is beautiful and technically sound, the artist is celebrating human transformative spirituality and experience through his work. He uses a color palette that could arguably be said to use colors specific to African tribal art- the hues and values are reminiscent of this to me, but i wonder how much that connection is made by me from the label alone of afrofuturism.

His influences are art nouveau artists like Alphonse Mucha and visionary modern artists, and he uses black models which to me is his loudest statement regarding blackness in white culture; unfortunately often black people are not regarded for beauty, or at least in a much different manner than the white European concept of beauty.

I don't know, the label allows this artist possibly to emerge and set himself apart from a large global pool of contemporary talent that he would perhaps otherwise be lost in by having this label applied to his work. It could allow him to become a leading Afropop artist in catalogues and galleries rather than just another painter of pretty pictures. I know nothing of his statements regarding his process and whether he accepts rejects or self applied the term to himself, and I'm not making any judgement on the validity of the term in any of the social or cultural contexts in which it can be applied.

I'm just sayhis ...

On the other hand... Labels for musical genres like Afrikaa Baambaata and Fela Kuti's Afropop are legitimate because the African influence is an irremovable aspect of the sound. Of course, also, it's been ascribed to racism and cultural appropriation that Rock and Roll isn't called something else..Afrorock?. But with visual art like the work of Joshua Mays, unless the statement is made by the artist's himself, i guess i do reject the term as exclusive and divisive.
 
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