Artist and musician George Clinton's studio in Tallahassee, Florida © Lynsey Weatherspoon 2021

Throughout his career, George Clinton has worked hard to let people relax, feel the trend and embrace fear. As a visual artist, his mission has not changed, only his medium.

It is almost impossible to distinguish George Clinton from the Council-Funkadelic. The music he composed with these groups changed his mind, opened his eyes, and made people sweat in the best possible way. But music is always inseparable from aesthetics: glittering 7-inch platform boots and huge alien mothership, dreadlocks and electric green leopard-print fur coat, oversized diamond-encrusted sunglasses. Council-Funkadelic is more than just music. They want to feel free enough to treat themselves like works of art without taking themselves too seriously. Few people can claim to have such a big impact on hearing and visual arts. Except for the jazz musician Sun Ra, no one can spread African Futurism as a concept, aesthetics, and way of life better than Clinton and Parliament Finca Delik.

Clinton’s work was exhibited at the Soho Beach House in Miami Beach this week, and he said he was “always graffiti”. He added: "My signature is really a graffiti, two eyes and a small nose. It ended up becoming a dog with ears and everything," Clinton said. "Then I started graffiti on the hotel fixtures. Once, in the early 1980s, when we really got rid of it, we painted everywhere on the walls of the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles." The hotel manager saw the room. Threatened to drive Clinton and his band away, and then left to find the hotel owner. "When he comes back, we have repainted everything. It's fun, but people have fun."

Performing artist: George Clinton, always colorful, working for the crowd at a concert in the 1990s © Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Clinton's painting method is no different from his musical method. Flow is very important, and it is also very important to understand your limits. "Once I realized that I could use the same theories that I used to make music, I could go against the norm, and it all made sense. I knew what I could and couldn't do in music, so I was able to break the rules. I am color-blind, so I have to learn to read tones and values-how to gradually change colors and blend things together. This is the kind of feeling I get from doing what I do, in my way. When I get At this rhythm, I can actually trust my feelings about the new logic. Because now, everything is in contention. All the realities are worth trying."

Entering this area will happen over time, and through practice, people can reach that state of loose focus faster. The environment is helpful, and another similarity to Clinton's music practice is that he thrives in front of the audience. He has a recording studio and painting studio in his home in Tallahassee, Florida. When drawing, he often broadcasts the whole process on Instagram. Clinton recently regained his music rights through Parliament and Funkadelic, and is happy to be familiar with these tunes and other performances of that era, such as Marvin Gaye and Eddie Kendricks while painting. Clinton feels at home on social media, and it’s no surprise for him that people can instantly inform all parts of the world to communicate. It enters directly into the basic theories behind African futurism, community, broad imagination and freedom from judgment. "That's a new generation. Now this is a digital world. All the realities we have, many things that you thought were impossible a few years ago," Clinton said.

Acrylic and oil paint in Clinton’s exhibition at Soho Beach House (approximately 2020) Courtesy of the artist

African Futurism is currently undergoing a revival. Recent exhibitions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have embraced and pushed African Futurism back to the center of contemporary art dialogue. In November, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened before we could fly yesterday. This is a "period room" of African Futurism. In February, it is planned to hold the African Futurism Festival at Carnegie Hall. Clinton is an indispensable figure in the field of African Futurism, before he started painting. "We are at another high point in the cycle," said Franklin Thurmans, director of the Perez Art Museum in Miami, where Clinton had exhibited before. "At some point in the 1990s, we were talking about African Futurism. George was definitely the basis of this conversation in many ways. Through his artistic practice, he is now joining the conversation, not as a symbol of the past or influence, but From now on. It's amazing."

Clinton is definitely in the moment, but his ideas are always attracted by futurism. "I still like all these things, aliens peeping from different dimensions," he said, adding that the pandemic gave him time to return to what he thought was science fiction: Star Trek. "When you think about it, all the different stories and theories they came up with are now here. I mean, their communicator is just a portable computer phone in their hands-an iPhone . Who would have thought it was possible?"

• George Clinton: Funkbasel, Soho Beach House, Miami Beach, until January 31