This Afronaut suit was created during Afatasi’s Black Space residency at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.
The piece became part of an artist collaboration with Beyond 28, which highlighted Afatasi’s work through a segment filmed at various sites throughout the city. In the video, Afatasi wears the suit while speaking about Afrofuturism, artistic process, personal history, and the future.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Afatasi approaches the Afronaut suit as both costume and declaration. The work imagines Black presence beyond the limits of the present, placing the body in motion through the city while also reaching toward speculative space, cultural memory, and futurity.
The suit combines play, performance, visibility, and transformation. Its bright Warriors fabric grounds the piece in San Francisco and Bay Area popular culture, while the sculptural headpiece pushes the figure into another realm: part fan, part traveler, part mythic explorer.