Black British Music x Art with GAIKA
An interview with POWER UP alum and artist GAIKA on Black British music and where it intersects with art
By POWER UP
GAIKA
GAIKA press shot (2023-01-01) by GAIKAPOWER UP
At POWER UP we amplify the work of Black creators and industry professionals, especially those innovating and leading the culture. One such person is GAIKA, an acclaimed multi-disciplinary creator whose Hip-Hop, Grime, Dancehall, and R&B-push the boundaries of music and art.
GAIKA press shot (2023-01-01) by GAIKAPOWER UP
We sat down with GAIKA to talk about Black British music and where, in his opinion, it intersects with art, plus GAIKA's own work, specifically 'SYSTEM' and the installations that he has created especially for the project 'Union Black'.
Power Up Question: Black British music is underpinned by such a powerful and holistic culture. As a multi-disciplinary artist, can you share your views on what role art has played and continues to play in Black British music culture and share some examples, in your opinion, of where the cross-section has been impactful?
Gaika press shot door (2023-06-01) by Photo by Emmanuel ShogboluPOWER UP
"I think that visual or structural art and music go hand in hand to create transitional rites of passage that shape culture and politics. To that end, I think that the Black British experience is often a question of space or class position, or the fight for it."
SYSTEM photo (2018-08-30) by GAIKAPOWER UP
"Black Art and Black Music are interlocked practices that have radically impacted and upset that positional system by creating revolutionary environments."
"Such spaces are built on the self-emancipation of Black people. Looking at it, these liminal spaces have eroded strict societal fault lines in the past."
Gaika YouTube Space (2022-10-01) by SureThing MediaPOWER UP
"It is the situational art of clubland that's most poignant for me. You can take the hybridity of individual visionary artists such as Goldie or Dub Morphology, who naturally operate across disciplines, hand in hand with the more communal activity that occurs...
SYSTEM photo (2018-08-30) by GAIKAPOWER UP
"...in the physical or digital spaces they have created over time. In doing so it’s easy to see where the visual or spatial interacts with the music to create paradigm shifting artistic moments imprinted on the British psyche."
Power Up Question:
Who inspired you and the work you do?
LIFE Photo Collection
"I’m inspired by a lot of different artists including Massive Attack, Prince, Basquiat and Geinoh Yamashirogumi".
Power Up Question:
Your project 'SYSTEM' re-imagines the sound system. As one of the most important parts of Black British music culture, can you share more about the impetus for this project?
Setting up the Sound System (1983/1983) by Peter AndersonNotting Hill Carnival
"The inspiration for this came from the idea of congregation as power. I started to think about how criminalised we are as Black people, especially when we gather, and about how defiant sound system architecture is."
GAIKA at the Roundhouse (2021-10-25) by Sure Thing MediaPOWER UP
"The willingness to disrupt an oppressive society with expressions of love and technique is magnificent to me. I wanted to think of the structure of such systems as well as their political meaning and play with that interchange of information between the audience and performer"
Watch GAIKA's performance at Boiler Room x Somerset House
Power Up Question:
You created an amazing installation for the project 'Union Black'. Can you break down what you have produced, the process of producing it and how it reflects the project?
Meteor (2023-01-01) by GAIKAPOWER UP
In 2020 the late cultural icon Greg Tate, writing for Sothebys, described the rise of Hip Hop in America as “meteoric.” So, this is what the artwork is based on.
The definition of this word is; 'relating to, or consisting of meteors – resembling a meteor in transient brilliance, suddenness of appearance, swiftness, etc."
The brilliance of Hip-Hop has, in a short time, had an immeasurable cultural impact on the entire world.
Hip-Hop is the first truly global musical phenomenon. To describe its rise as meteoric is to speak of the seismic shift inducing socio-political weight encoded in its rhythms and lyrics. It is to speak of the incendiary nature of the art-form, of its joyous magnetism or its cold alienation. The impact of this meteor, however, is far from transient, Hip-Hop, as all Black Music is, is eternal in its ability and propensity to make irreversible change to all it touches.
Meteor (2023-01-01) by GAIKAPOWER UP
Still, the analogy holds. Any Meteorite has come from somewhere and will go somewhere. Deep within it is the information pertaining to its origin, its journey and onward destination. As it falls to earth, burning brightly it remains intrinsically precious and must be preserved.
Thus this work representing UNION BLACK is entitled Black Meteor and is a collection of six audio, visual and architectural installations that reflect in essence the chapters of the 'Union Black' project.
Heavily influenced by the pioneering use of technology that underpins the continued global success of Black British music, and my continued participation in the culture of Hip-Hop, the work considers the act of archiving Black British music culture for future generations.
Each of the six installations is part of a whole that attempts to represent the process of creation, capture and broadcast that has literally made history. As such the whole work is future bound, functional and speculative in approach.
Gaika sunglasses (2023-06-01) by Photo by Emmanuel ShogboluPOWER UP
The installations use industrial materials and electronics to create moments of feedback with the audience that mimic the rites of passage I see as intrinsic to Black club music and sound system culture combined with the architectural aesthetic of aerospace and astronomy.
Gaika glasses (2023-06-01) by Photo by Emmanuel ShogboluPOWER UP
This conversation between the structure of literal and metaphysical transport and the power of congregation represents the transformational nature of Black music culture of British society.
Interview by Yaw Owusu, Senior Manager of POWER UP
For more artist Gaika: instagram.com/gaikasees
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