George Clinton, Ethereal De-cloaking, 2023. Courtesy of George Clinton.
Mothership, George Clinton's first solo exhibition with Mariane Ibrahim, centers on the iconic spacecraft that in 1976 transformed Parliament-Funkadelic concerts into interstellar journeys. The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Mothership, a visionary creation that, in Clinton’s words, took “the ’hood into outer space.”
As ambitious as it was improbable, the Mothership – a silver, pyramid-shaped vessel that landed on-stage with Clinton himself as Dr. Funkenstein on board – captured the imagination of Parliament’s audiences, bringing psychedelic culture into the mainstream at a moment when the space race remained an ongoing cultural obsession. Drawing equally from comic books, superhero mythology, and Clinton’s lifelong fascination with science fiction, the Mothership became far more than a stage event. It helped propel funk into popular culture while opening a new and fertile imaginative horizon in which Black people could claim outer space as a realm of possibility, liberation, and self-determination.
The exhibition highlights George Clinton’s painting practice, revealing his enduring fascination with the Mothership and the expansive mythology surrounding it. Alongside a sculpture of the spacecraft, visitors will encounter archival materials that offer insight into the creation of what The New York Times recently described as rock’s “wildest stage prop.”
