Afrofuturism is not a dream
An unfolding of a personal mission through art, curiosity, and purpose
“Afrofuturism, is not a dream, look up” came to me after I completed Mother Gaia. Mother Gaia is an abstract landscape painting of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula; the mixed media painting delves into traditional ecological wisdom and the generational impact when that knowledge is lost. The painting began in 2013 after a 2012 community research study abroad experience in South Africa. As the years passed, I felt called to layer and incorporate the depth of that experience onto a canvas.
As an International Nutrition student at the University of Texas at Austin, my study abroad experience was research within the country's culture, political, and nutrition landscapes, including visiting townships in South Africa, where I saw the beauty, resilience, and culture of the people. It also lingered in my mind because in the same place where you’d see bright billboards of a glittering bead of water on a crisp red soda can - you would see the corrugated iron shack skyline of the illegal houses filled with upwards of millions of inhabitants who lacked clean water, infrastructure, and food access.
In Mother Gaia, I incorporate an elder enshrined with silver foil and gold paint adorned with the wealth of plant medicine, food imagery, and trinkets of nature’s blessings. The generations that follow are presented in three columns, representing a period of family and how their connection to land, self, history, and knowledge fades, just like the overlaid illustrations on transparent tracing paper. The painting was completed in 2023, a decade after it had begun. Written on the back is the phrase sparked by a decade of learning, living, researching, and observing systemic patterns.
“Afrofuturism isn’t a dream, look up” is a call to action.
Untangling systems of inequity and creating solutions for present and future generations while acknowledging cyclical and historical patterns requires an exploratory mindset to transcend disciplinary boundaries and synthesize innovation to create lasting, sustainable solutions.
As a neurodiverse, public health-educated, interdisciplinary artist, technologist, citizen scientist, futurist, and activist, I question, explore, imagine, and dance between disciplines. In 2022, my interest sparked an exploration in space, from string theory to the space industry. In the dance of interconnected futures and possibilities, a question formed in the simplest hope: How can we learn from our past and create a better future?
To break unhealthy patterns on an individual to global level, we must tune in and attune to our lived truths and choose a wiser path that releases unconscious or conscious limiting beliefs and patterns.
On this planet, humanity has existed as a convoluted, complex, and uniquely supported species that sees itself separate from the Earth, disconnected, and from each other by lines of color, class, geographies, religion, age, and all our intersectionalities, personalities, and idiosyncrasies. If we do not wish to perpetuate the past and desire a future marked in its antithesis, we would welcome inclusivity, restorative and circular economies, original models of industry and practice, and a society that celebrates diversity in its multifaceted forms.
In 2024, our technological advances mean that our industries, habitats, and every facet of society are presently changing by a multitude of influences, namely artificial intelligence, social networks and ecosystems, decentralized tech and industry models, systemic shifts in incentive drivers and power, and Earth’s polycrisis.
All of these influences are also impacting the current ‘space race’. The space race has sprung conversations and choices on interplanetary futures where habitats on planets, moon mining, orbital industries, and spaceship design are taking place now. If the current patterns of unequal awareness, access, and power continue to unfold due in part to the nature of one trying to survive, heal, and overcome generational and present-day racism, marginalization, class segregation, geographical access points of food, health, education, and economics, our present and future generations will be prohibited from looking up at the very stars glittering for us all. Then, who will shape the future and the planets we’re attempting to explore and live upon?
In 2028, the first woman and person of color will crew a mission to the moon, and it’s a sign of progress to witness the Artemis IV mission unfolding. It’s pivotal because the space economy “has expanded by over 60% in the last decade and is now valued at roughly $400 billion.” The vast unfolding of space, technology, and our industries, which previously heralded diversity initiatives, are being financially chastised for advocating for an inclusive future. This requires a shift in our present-day involvement in industries, shaping our collective human future.
My work as an artist is rooted in artivism - art and activism. My work as a social impact founder through AR+E COMETS is to advance planetary health. Underlying these both is my personal mission to create art, design, innovation, and honor life’s spectrum of diversity, from plants to people. I believe just as the neural diversity of minds benefits society, all ethnicities, cultures, and people do too. Like the Ubuntu philosophy’s awareness of interconnectedness and Baháʼí Faith saying, we are “one planet, one people.” The invitation in my work, inspired by themes like solar punk and Afrofuturism genres explored through a creative fellowship through the Design Science Studio, is a narrative that invites us all to embody hope and collectively work towards a regenerative, sustainable, and more equitable future.
In the work I’m creating across mediums, industries, and ambitious outcomes, I aspire to be a voice, a creative, and an innovator shaping the artistic, political, social, environmental, technological, and spiritual worlds during my precious existence. This is deeply rooted in my own lived experiences. As one who has overcome complex trauma through a curious journey of self-healing, and have found my way back to not only a sense of purpose but hope in a renewed sense of faith towards God, people, and the Earth we live upon. I did not look up in my own life towards the stars until I had healed the many wounds I’d lost count of during years of disassociation, masking, and coping. To look up means you’re open to seeing beyond and inviting imagination to encapsulate your mind, not the troubles, worries, pains, and traumas you’ve known. At least, that is what it has meant to me. So, written on canvas and orange acrylic paint adjacent to a blue moon is a phrase, a call to action, and an invitation.
Afrofuturism isn’t a dream. Look up.
Mother Gaia will make its appearance in San Francisco on February 7th at Live Worms Gallery with the Solarpunkification Art show. The opening night event will be February 7th, 2025, 5-10 pm, with the opening weekend from 12-7 pm (PT) Pacific on February 8th and February 9th, 2025. Then, a new work unfolded from this article’s shared learning journey and creative collaboration with Project Row Houses’ Creative Career Mentor Program will be unveiled in Houston, Texas, in February 2025.
Now, you know the story behind the art, and I can’t wait to share what comes next.
With creativity and curiosity,
RYN DEL PAPA