An African Army in Civic Center Plaza

A conceptual art installation has arrived in Civic Center Plaza with the unwieldy title, Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness. The Invisible Man refers to the Ralph Ellison novel and the Masque of Blackness to a lavish, racist pageant put on by the 17th century Queen Anne of Britain.

The artist Zac Ove is a Londoner who is originally from Trinidad, and he is the rare artist who can explain his art well, as you can see in this YouTube video and in this video which shows the same installation on a perfect English lawn.

As a child, he was taken for a visit to West Africa with his father, and they brought back a 42-inch sculpture which Zak grew up with as a token of his changing height over the years.

In this art installation, the original figure has grown to twice its size, seven feet.

And there are 80 of them, constituting a small surrealist army.

The African dudes will be hanging out until November in Civic Center Plaza, and if you're interested, the artist will be in town on July 19th from 5-9 PM for a public opening. There will probably be dull political speeches and proclamations, but you can meet the artist and welcome his strange inspiration to town.