A Time for New Dreams, held earlier this year at London’s Serpentine Gallery, was the first institutional exhibition from designer Grace Wales Bonner. Renowned for her design process foregrounding Afro-Caribbean cultural narratives, Wales Bonner anchored the exhibition on contemporary artists who have shaped her creative vision as well as archival media and seminal works by mid-century political theorists. 

Filled with literary and musical cues from black cultural aesthetics, Prophecy is a meditative tapestry of clips from the exhibition’s contributing artists celebrating the rituals connected to Afro-Caribbean heritage. 

Laraaji, a multi-instrumentalist and mystic, plays a candle-lit gong at a sonic shrine. Images of the African diaspora from photographer Liz Johnson Artur flicker in and out of frame. Recordings from poet-novelists Ben Okri and Ishmael Reed provide pearls of wisdom about consciousness and the spirit. Threading all the work together, Mercury Prize-winning artist Sampha lays down a seraphic and contemplative soundtrack.

Wales Bonner is a cultural polymath who arms herself with historical research, literary references and post-colonial critical theory. Born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, she uses fashion as a canvas to express her interpretation of the stories that have shaped black heritage and identity. A Time for New Dreams culminated in her Autumn/Winter 2019 collection, Mumbo Jumbo, which looked at black intellectualism as a form of spirituality.