February 12, 2025 to April 30, 2025
Asian Library Upper Level, Asian Centre
1871 West Mall, UBC Vancouver 

Overview 

“In a single painting, the history of mankind, human beliefs, and human technology were all depicted. The bird’s eye view composition was so powerful that it seemed almost demonic, and the insect’s eye view was more precise than a photograph, filled with a reality beyond reality. The colors were nothing short of amazing. Every hue shimmered, faded, spurted, congealed, and shattered in every realm of color that the human eye can perceive.”  

— Watanabe Kiyoshi, “Interview with Nagaoka Shūsei: Looking Ahead to the 21st Century” (1985) 

 

 

The Asian Library exhibit Space Fantasy: Nagaoka Shūsei ‘s Contributions to Afrofuturist Visual Culture showcases the visionary universe of the diasporic Japanese illustrator Nagaoka Shūsei through album covers, interviews, artworks, and books highlighting his legacy in Japan. This exhibit notably includes the first known example of Afrofuturistic artwork attributed to Nagaoka.

This exhibit is curated by Dr. Nathan Hesselink from the UBC School of Music, whose recent publication in The Journal of American Culture, sharing the same title as this display, provides an analysis of Nagaoka Shūsei’s life, career, legacy, and artistic collaboration with the band Earth, Wind & Fire. This initiative originated from a conversation between Dr. Hesselink and the Asian Library Head, Dr. Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa. Tomoko Kitayama Yen, the Japanese Studies Librarian, is the project lead.

We offer our gratitude to the many UBC Library employees who have graciously contributed to the exhibit:

• David Haskins (Music, Art & Architecture Library) and Milan Simić (Koerner Library) for acquiring relevant titles for their collections.
• Stephanie Savage (Digital Programs & Services) for her expert guidance on important compliance matters.
• Aleteia Greenwood (Associate University Librarian, Research & Scholarship) for her support in order to stream music from the albums on display.
• Phoebe Chan and Anna Moorhouse (Library Communications & Marketing) for providing professional photography and other communication-related support.
• Phoebe Chow (Asian Library) for web support, along with a wealth of exhibit-related expertise.
• Asian Library Student Librarians, Mizuki Giffin, who masterfully created the outstanding virtual exhibit, and Austin Miner, who carefully wrote and recorded the thorough audio guides.

This display will run from mid-February to late April on the Asian Library’s Upper Level. On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the library will stream music from the albums on display. This precedes a talk by Dr. Hesselink hosted from 12:30-2:00pm where he will speak at-length about his recent research and publication. Finally, starting at 2:30pm, Dr. Hesselink will provide a guided tour of the display. These events are free and open to all. For more information on Dr. Hesselink’s lecture, please see here.

For those unable to attend on February 26^th, the following virtual exhibit and visiting guide will provide images and further resources from our display. All text included in this virtual exhibit’s subpages were provided by Dr. Hesselink.

Nagaoka Shūsei Biography

Nagaoka Shūsei (長岡秀星; 1936-2015) was a celebrated Japanese artist, illustrator, and author. He is best known for his contributions to record cover art, including artists such as the Carpenters, Deep Purple, Earth, Wind & Fire, Electric Light Orchestra, Giorgio Moroder, Jefferson Starship, Parlet, Rose Royce, Shalamar, and Stanley Turrentine. His paintings have been featured in numerous magazines, gallery exhibitions, and science expos, and a series of space shuttle structural drawings are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Born in Nagasaki, Japan, Nagaoka demonstrated a proclivity and talent for drawing from an early age. After a brief stint at art college in Tokyo and working for a number of commercial publishers and advertisers, he moved in 1970 to Los Angeles, California. Nagaoka remained in the United States until 2004, when he returned to Japan.

Nagaoka Shūsei’s first illustration job after arriving in Los Angeles was for the Los Angeles Times. The theme given to him was the future of LA’s airfield; the striking image featuring a futuristic supersonic jet came out August 9, 1970 and was titled “Bringing in Tomorrow at Los Angeles International.”

Further reading:

Japanese resources (access through UBC):

• Nagaoka’s obituary: https://yomidas-yomiuri-co-jp.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/yomiuri/viewer/6743010 and https://xsearch-asahi-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/kiji/image/?1720477726425
• A 1980 article reporting on Nagaoka’s visit to Japan from Los Angeles: https://xsearch-asahi-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/shimen/pdf/?1720477766424
• An 1990 article reporting that the first Japanese citizen to travel to space, Akiyama Toyohiro, presented a copy of Nagaoka’s illustration of the Earth as a gift to the Japanese prime minister: https://yomidas-yomiuri-co-jp.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/yomiuri/articles/369371
• An 1979 article on Earth, Wind & Fire’s tour of Japan: https://xsearch-asahi-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/shimen/pdf/?1720477997962

UBC Library collections:

• Do You Remember? Celebrating Fifty Years of Earth, Wind & Fire
• Nagaoka Shūsei no sekai = The works of Shusei Nagaoka (2 volumes)
• Androla in labyrinth

External resources:

• A Tribute to Graphic Designer Shusei Nagaoka

What is Afrofuturism?

This exhibition celebrates Nagaoka’s contributions to Afrofuturist visual culture. We can define such images as follows:

This type of artwork visually represents an intersection of African diasporic themes, twentieth-century technoculture, and futuristic liberation.*

Complementary perspectives add the importance of reclaiming and re-imagining history:

By envisioning a history unimpeded by the restrictions of racism, Afrofuturism provides an alternative pathway for African American artistry and creativity.^

Central to such artistic endeavours was the special relationship Nagaoka nurtured and maintained throughout his life with Earth, Wind & Fire’s founder, Maurice White. In combination with the lyrics, themes, costumes, choreography, and music, Nagaoka’s art would complete White’s vision for his band. This exhibition pays special attention to Nagaoka’s Afrofuturist record covers for Earth, Wind & Fire.

*Antoine Haywood, “Cover Art: A Reflection on Afrofuturistic Album Covers, Funk Music, and Black American Identity Formation” (2021)

^Kevin M. Strait, “Introduction,” in Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, ed. Kevin M. Strait and Kinshasha Holman Conwill (2023)

Further reading:

Japanese resources:

• SF magajin article « アフロフューチャリズムはなぜ必要なのか? : このエイリアン・ネイションを離れて。地下鉄道とマザーシップでプレアデス連邦へ» https://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=6544524

UBC Library collections:

• In the Black fantastic / Ekow Eshun
• The shadows took shape / [curated by] Naima J. Keith, Zoé Whitley [exhibition catalogue]
• Off the planet : music, sound and science fiction cinema / edited by Philip Hayward
• Cosmic underground northside : an incantation of Black Canadian speculative discourse & innerstandings / edited by Quentin VerCetty and Audrey Hudson
• Sun Ra’s Chicago : Afrofuturism and the City
• CD: Bitches brew / Miles Davis (cover art here; not by Nagaoka but Afrofuturist in style)
• A Reflection on Afrofuturistic Album Covers, Funk Music, and Black American Identity Formation
• Afro-Samurai: techno-Orientalism and contemporary hip hop
• Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture
• Redefining Our Future: A Semiotic Approach to Understanding the Black Otaku
• Afrofuturism: A history of Black futures
• “Space fantasy: Nagaoka Shusei’s contributions to Afrofuturist visual culture”

Extemal resources:

• Afrofuturism in Jazz Music / Louis Barnes
• The Fantasy of Embodiment: Afrofuturism, Cosplay and the Afrodiaspora

Exhibit Artwork

Case One

 

Case Two

 

The seventh studio album by the massively successful English band, Nagaoka transformed ELO’s newly designed logo—created the year before by the English artist John Kosh—into a space station, complete with a shuttle docking and astronauts on tethers. The inside cover revealed its interior, with more astronauts, floating orbs, and complex computer panels. The album art led to Nagaoka becoming an underground legend on the West Coast amidst the rock music crowd.

 

 

 

Case Three

All ’N All was Earth, Wind & Fire’s eighth studio album and represents the first collaboration between Nagaoka Shūsei and Maurice White. The outside gatefold cover is one of the most famous pieces of twentieth-century Afrofuturist art and features a stylized re-creation of the Great Temple at the village of Abu Simbel, seamlessly transitioning into a space age with futuristic buildings and rocket ships launching. Nagaoka titled this painting Taiyōshin (太陽神), or “Sun God”; the original measures 52.5 x 195.7 cm, a single panel that includes both the outer and inner covers.

 

 

“In a single painting, the history of mankind, human beliefs, and human technology were all depicted. The bird’s eye view composition was so powerful that it seemed almost demonic, and the insect’s eye view was more precise than a photograph, filled with a reality beyond reality. The colors were nothing short of amazing. Every hue shimmered, faded, spurted, congealed, and shattered in every realm of color that the human eye can perceive.”  

— Watanabe Kiyoshi, “Interview with Nagaoka Shūsei: Looking Ahead to the 21st Century” (1985) 

 

Case Four

The second track from All ’N All, this Japanese release of the single featured an altered title: “Fantasy” (the original title) has been changed to “Space Fantasy.” The front cover art was also unique to the Japanese release: the entire outer gatefold from All ’N All has been printed as a single illustration, with extra space and stars added above the pyramid and space station.

 

 

 

 

In 2020, five years after Nagaoka’s passing, his estate organized the largest public exhibition of his work featuring 80 of his most famous paintings. Running from December 8 to December 27 at Tokyo’s Daikanyama Hillside Forum, the accompanying exhibition book featured a paper obi dustjacket that displayed the entire four-panel painting of “Sun God” (Taiyōshin), or the cover to All ’N All.

 

 

 

 

 

Case Five

I Am was Earth, Wind & Fire’s ninth studio album and the third to be illustrated by Nagaoka Shūsei.  Measuring 100.8 x 54.0 cm, Nagaoka titled this painting Mokushiroku (黙示録), or “Revelation.” The centre image features a bright light akin to a star, surrounded by what appears to be a series of concentric metallic rings. In the middle of the light is the face of an old man and a human fetus; according to Nagaoka, “The star depicts the Creator and the unborn child, giving us a revelation of the new world.”

 

 

 

The thing that enchanted me about I Am was the artwork. The vast Nubian army, the Egyptian-themed landscape, the futuristic city on the horizon, and floating above it…four flying saucers. … These images were my introduction to this inspiring and aesthetically breathtaking universe. … There’s something about seeing Black people with robots and spaceships that makes me SOOOO happy! Probably because I spent my entire childhood watching white folks going to other planets, traveling through time, building androids or visiting aliens.

— Charles Conyers Jr., “My Life in Afrofuturism” (2018)

 

Case Six

Raise! was Earth, Wind & Fire’s eleventh studio album and the fourth to be illustrated by Nagaoka Shūsei. The outside gatefold cover features two Egyptian goddesses, one part stone and the other encased in a skyscraper-like sarcophagus. Nagaoka titled this painting Tenkūno megami (天空の女神), or “Sky Goddess.” It is a rare twentieth-century example of a futuristic female deity of African descent

 

 

 

 

The Raise! album cover is a visual portal that sets my imagination adrift. This album’s cover art now teleports me to a pool party at a distant interplanetary settlement of liberated Black people. Two-stepping and finger-snapping, everyone is united by a cosmic funk groove.

— Antoine Haywood, “Cover Art: A Reflection on Afrofuturistic Album Covers, Funk Music, and Black American Identity Formation” (2021)

 

Case Seven

Sun was an R&B, soul, disco, and funk band that was formed in Dayton, Ohio. They were frequently seen on the American television show Soul Train. Destination: Sun was Sun’s fourth studio album.

 

 

 

 

 

Parlet was a female spinoff group from funk master George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic formed by background vocalists Mallia Franklin, Jeanette Washington, and Debbie Wright. Pleasure Principle was their debut album; to the upper left one can see George Clinton staring down on his protégés through the glass.

 

 

 

 

Case Eight

The Sylvers were an American R&B family vocal group from Los Angeles, California. The family consisted of ten siblings, nine of whom performed in the band at any one time. New Horizons was their sixth studio album; its success led them to sign with Giorgio Moroder and Casablanca Records.

 

 

 

 

 

Maze, also known as Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly, and Frankie Beverly & Maze, was an American R&B and soul group based in San Francisco, California. Inspiration is their third album and was believed to best capture the essence of the band’s live performances.

 

 

 

 

 

Audio Tour

Take a guided tour of the display by listening along with our UBC Library Audio Guides.

• Display Audio Guide
• Descriptive Audio Guide

 

YouTube Playlist

• Access a YouTube playlist with all songs from the albums featured in this exhibit here.