A Time For New Dreams

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is showcasing fashion designer, Grace Wales Bonner’s first exhibition ‘A Time For New Dreams’. The exhibition focuses on the rigorous research the designer has undertaken into multiple geographies and temporalities, culminating in the presentation of her Autumn/Winter 19 collection ‘Mumbo Jumbo’.

The shrine as a symbolic pathway is explored in the show, imagining different worlds and possibilities using a series of multi-sensory installations. Themes of mysticism and ritual are present throughout, drawing upon the images and rhythms of rituals and ceremonies from all over the world.

The collection features such protagonists as the artist-shaman, a West African spiritual healer, and a gathering of Howard University intellectuals, all of whom inhabit the environment created by the exhibition. The title ‘A Time For New Dreams’ is taken from writer Ishmael Reed’s seminal text of 1972, which satirically traces a series of narratives in 1920s New York, encompassing voodoo, jazz music and white supremacy.

‘A Time for New Dreams’ runs until 16th February, and will be the backdrop to Bonner’s AW19 runway show.