Zak OvéAttillahPhoto Courtesy of the Artist

Zak Ové was born in the UK to a Trinidadian father, who was a pioneer filmmaker in Britain, and a British mother. Zak inherited his father's passion for filmmaking and for "visual stories." He is an artist exploring the history behind Trinidadian Carnival through photography, and the African roots and culture through his sculptures.

 

I'd like to think that my work is about a history of me, as much as it's about a future of me.

Art is an examination of who we are, isn't it? And it gets people to examine themselves and to better themselves. In a sense, I'm looking at all the timelines that I'm attached to and how they go. I'm fascinated by history, which is why I'm also trying to bring historical things to life. But I'm also fascinated by the future, what we become, and where things lead. - Zack Ové

 

How was it growing up in London in an Irish Caribbean environment?

 

It was very diverse and colorful. I got to see a lot of different extremities in life and definitely made for an enriched childhood in that sense.

 

My father was the first Black British filmmaker in Britain. He set a record of having made the first Black British feature film. He was also the first Black director of television in this country. My mother was quite diverse too. She was from the communist background and was a socialist workers' speaker in the 50's. They made political rallies in this country, and subsequently was pushed in to go to film school. So, already, there was an interesting dynamic between them. He was involved with the Black power politics of the day, documenting the change in times and the birth of multiculturalism in this country. We were very much a part of that experience. It was very interesting from that point of view, especially at a time when multiculturalism was not accepted in Britain. It was not a norm and we definitely lived outside of that.

 

In my mind Britain at that point in time was very much in need of change. My parents' generation, my father and his friends were kind of instigators of that change in a way. I grew up amidst of some of that turbulence in this country. which led to things like the Knottinghill carnival, then to the riots that took place thereafter to declare a change in British culture where really multiculturalism had to sit down and say: Look, we are British, we are West Indian and we were born here. We are here to stay. I was very much a part of that experience.

 

I understand that your father made films about the Caribbean. Were they mostly films of his native land Trinidad?

 

No, they were films that dealt with the Black experience here in Britain. They were also films about the alienating conflict of what it was to be Black and British in the 70's and in the 80's here in the UK.

 

Aside from that, he also did do work that was relative to Trinidad. What he tried to do was to explore all the thread lines that had arrived in the Caribbean back to their original source. He was very interested in work that had to do with India, the Indian migration to Britain, and of course its history with regards to the Caribbean and its influences there, which were massive. Trinidad is 45% East Indian. Likewise, he was very interested in the elements that had come together in aspects of Trinidad Carnival for instance, which dates back to Spain and to Portugal and to the Yuroba traditions in Nigeria and West Africa, very much taking as much in as possible and trying to examine who we were in a much more global sense.

 

What were some of the early influences that led you to pursue the arts?

 

I think I was always drawn to the visual arts versus the written arts, due to the nature of the person that I am. It's always hard to say, isn't it, why we end up doing what we do? I guess I'm always excited by the images of his work and the colors.

 

It was a kind of natural thing for me. I just went in a set direction, and luckily I was enabled with the people around me to be able to perceive that. And it worked. After awhile, I'm never completely sure myself.

 

How did your father's activities influenced you as a young boy?

 

Very much. I feel that I was given the trade skills that I have, and in many respects I was his apprentice for many years. It's been a big influence to me, both in terms of the diversity of what I've been able to take in and see through working with him, and through his work which led me to places like India and various parts of Africa at an early age.

 

And I think having him as a mentor and being able to see the world through his eyes definitely helped highlight directions for me, and gave me a kind of an agenda in life that I was quite happy and motivated to move towards. I think, in life, as you are growing up, you end up doing similar work to that of your parents. One of the things that you inherit is their passion, and I feel that both my parents were very passionate about what they were involved with. And my work has naturally picked up on that.

 

When and how did your journey in photography begin?

 

It began in my early teens at school. Part of it is being around a father who was a photographer, and studying in school taking classes, having my own little camera and figuring it out. I was always quite happy making things and doing things by myself. Photography was always a joy in that sense.

 

I saw the Transfigura photographs. What is Transfigura about?

 

What I was looking at and interested in was the transformation of character in Carnival, where traditionally often people play the same character year after year and change the face of the character and the dress et cetera. More fascinated really was how people were using that situation to take away what and who made them do the kinds of colonial society, and how they were able to proclaim themselves through this process of exaltation. By that, what I mean is really having to use the costumes to say: "Look, this is me and I could be anything versus what you think I am." So, I think it's always been a massive point and reference to challenge in Carnival, and what I was interested in was how people used the empowerment of that transformation to better themselves.

 

Why does Carnival inspire you to photograph it? Do you feel closer to your roots by being there and documenting it?

 

Yes, in a way. It's like being amidst a living history. It allows me at times to have a dialogue with aspects of my past. And to be able to realize aspects of what the future could be in terms of my work, and the things that inspire me within my work. What I like about Carnival is the way it inherently melts together all the cultures that exist within it. It's one of the aspects of history and science fiction and all the things that kind of inspire us at the same time. It's done this uniquely by itself, retaining a sense of itself for hundreds of years now, and I think the language that exists is quite unique and amazing. To me, in many respects, it's a cultural jewel of Trinidad. It reminds people of who they are, whence they came, and why they should be proud. I think this is a very important experience, and empowering for anyone who take part in it, Trinidadian or not.

 

When did you start the "Transfigura" series?

I started them in 2000.

 

Have you been doing photography every year since then?

No, not every year. I've been doing it when and where I can. I've totally missed three or four since then.

 

Is your Transfigura series continuing beyond where it is now, or was Nr. 3 the last one?

It's continuing. What I've become fascinated by also, is that within the story of masks and old masks in particular, there are certain characters that had been played in the last hundred years by certain people and certain families that are dying off. The great characters, and what makes them great, is the story that they pertain to. In particular, you have things like midnight robbers, Indian masks, and the fancy sailors. Very few people play them any more authentically. What I've been trying to do is document the people that have played these characterizations best, but away from the parade. I prefer to shoot or portray them in a setting that speaks eloquently of the story of that character versus just seeing them in the crowd.

 

I read on your website that you are a filmmaker. Do you consider yourself more a filmmaker than a photographer, or you have equal passion for both?

 

No. Recently I was doing a lot of sculpture. I had a retrospective in London. I very much see myself as an all-rounder. Film is one of the first established medium I succeeded in and so is photography, but more recently I've been doing a lot more in gallery-based work and in three-dimensional material like found objects. I've been really trying to span various forms of media. What I'm trying to do is a continuous discourse across those media, if you like.

 

When did you start making sculpture?

 

I started making sculpture more seriously in the last four years. I've been back in Trinidad time and time again photographing people making masks for carnival, costumes etc. I was working on a body of work trying to figure out what .. some of ... and some are on my website. But through the processes, understanding the history of that and why it became vitally important for them, I also found myself drawn specifically to making things, as opposed to just being somebody documenting other people making things. And in the end, it excited me so much that I wanted to do it myself. I was interested in what they were doing specifically to Trinidad, and how my work in a way could speak about my relationship between Trinidad and London, and New York and other places I've been living.

 

What inspired you four years ago to start making sculptures?

 

I've been doing the photographic work every year in Trinidad during Carnival, and certain artists in Trinidad recognized the work I've done and the potential it had. I was then invited back to Trinidad to CCA7, which was an art residency practice in Port of Spain. I received assistance to go and do the residency there through the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York. While I was there, I worked with a group of artists from Trinidad. I was encouraged and inspired to break ground and make changes. It was the first chance I had to really concentrate on painting and sculpture in an environment where I had good artistic mentors from a local situation there to help me.

 

Can you describe the process and materials used in creating your sculptures?

 

I work mainly with found objects and use traditional African masks in context and various things. It's very much mixed media in that sense. I use hair combs, old guitars, and a mixture of antiques, new materials, things that people have discarded, a lot of them in the last twenty years.

 

Where do you get these materials from?

 

I usually find them in junk shops, in markets, in people's stuff, anywhere I can find things really.

 

What are the main ideas or themes behind your sculptures, what messages are you trying to address?

 

It's not really one set message that I'm trying to address. I was interested in moving forward in terms of contemporary African art or contemporary African art of the diaspora. It was looking at certain traditions and practices within that and how they can be re-conveyed in new materials, how one can use recycling to reclaim a sense of African identity for instance, versus the traditional pieces that have always been made from ebony wood. So it was looking at ways of using new and recycled materials to continue in an African tradition to make new pieces, but taking into account all the new things we have to work with.

 

In regards to your trips to Trinidad and the energy you get there versus in London, do you find that one energy feeds your work more?

 

I found Trinidad really liberating. It's fascinating to see how the local based art form became what it is today because of how it reputed against what was placed in front of it. And how people used Carnival to speak out and how costumes and masks and exaltation really became means of defiance which led to independence.

 

What is the community like in terms of Caribbean artists in the UK?

It's small and it's quite fractured. But I think that's the problem with Caribbean art globally. It's very fractured. It doesn't seem to have any kind of a central tribe, or any center where it celebrates itself that really is resonant enough.

 

What are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on the sculpture work, up until the exhibitions. I am returning to Trinidad this month to try to pursue more photographic work. Now that Carnival is nearly in season.

 

How do you balance the Caribbean and Irish-British heritage, and how does that appear in your art?

 

My heritage combines in different ways depending on what I'm working on. It's not something that has to be there permanently, but certain pieces definitely look like that. One of the things that I've been working on is a series of resin sculptures based on African wooden pieces that are carved into clay resins. I've entitled those pieces, "The Invisible Man." I was interested in the extraction of form. It really was a kind of investigation of how something that in the West is often considered naive or a relic, and by the change of form, color, and materials suddenly becomes contemporary work again. I'm also interested in how one keeps alive a dialogue to one's artistic cultural ancestry. And, for someone like myself, to blend the traditions in African art and Caribbean art with my Western experience to make something that's unique. So I think, the work like me, has to cross over and has to mesh the world that I come from.

 

In terms of your identity, do you experience any conflict working in the UK and producing images of Caribbean culture?

 

I think the work that I would like to produce in the future is work that challenges that conflict. In a way it's almost looking for conflict. Why not stand out, being different and to talk about that experience of being different, and try to make that discussion inherent to the work. It's finding visual ways of processing that full process and those kinds of ideas so you can do something visually that speaks of exactly what that motion is: standing out, not blending in, as a predicament of being caught between those two things in life, what other people see you as and how you see yourself.

 

Do you use art as a way to discover yourself or to empower yourself? How important is art in your life?

 

I think both. I think I use it partly in those means and as an education. It works as an exploratory tool to what seems both social, political, and emotional. It depends on how I can use art to investigate those things. All art is very soothing emotionally and very empowering. When you do something you like, as impressionistic as it may seem, it helps you a lot. I think it's always been a very therapeutic process in that sense.

 

I'd like to think that my work is about a history of me, as much as it's about a future of me.

Art is an examination of who we are, isn't it? And it gets people to examine themselves and to better themselves. In a sense, I'm looking at all the timelines that I'm attached to and how they go. I'm fascinated by history, which is why I'm also trying to bring historical things to life. But I'm also fascinated by the future, what we become, and where things lead.

 

What are some of your art career goals?

 

To do the best work as I possibly can, and to expand myself as far as possible. If that can be recognized, great! The important thing is to pursue a level of honesty in what I'm doing, to learn as much as possible, and do better.