Black and Blue. The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness
Among Zak Ové’s most recognizable works is Black and Blue. The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness, an installation originally made for Somerset House in London where it debuted in 2017, and comprising a phalanx of 40 graphite figures arranged in military-like formation. The installation would later be presented at the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden at LACMA, San Francisco Civic Centre Plaza, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the UK.
The work is a rebuke to The Masque of Blackness, a Jacobean-era play written in 1605 by Ben Jonson for Queen Anne of Denmark in which the masquers, appearing in blackface makeup, were to be disguised as Africans and were to be “cleansed” of their blackness by King James.
The work references two milestones in Black history. The Jonson play was the first stage production to use blackface make-up, and Invisible Man is another literary reference, to Ralph Ellison’s novel, the first by an African American to win the National Book Award.
As with much of Ové’s work, this one also takes inspiration from Caribbean Carnival, a celebration that is rooted in Mardi Gras festivities of the French colonists of the region and Canboulay, a similar event through which enslaved people expressed themselves with music and costume and honored their African traditions. The figures stand tall signifying the stance historically admired by Western men, according to Ové, as well as the resilience of the African diaspora.
Autonomous Morris, 2018
Ové’s futuristic, totemic mask, Autonomous Morris, was originally commissioned for the Smithson Plaza in Mayfair London in 2018. It later appeared at Frieze Sculpture Park in 2019.
The title refers to a motorized “Macco” or person who gets involved in other people’s business for the sake of gossip. Made from deconstructed vintage car parts, that the artist welded together this work has both a futuristic and retro feel, looking both backward and forward. Very Zak Ové.
