Page 122 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

RISING STARS

On The Up!

There is no disputing that the United Kingdom is bursting with talent.
Adenike Adenitire looks at who’s been making the kind of
moves that could see them on the Powerlist in a few years...

nce again we are bringing you a selection of up- and Duchess of Sussex at an event this year. Her MBE,
and-coming talent whose stars we predict will given in the Queen’s 2017 New Year’s Honours list, is also a
Okeep rising. We are proud of the fact that so many testament to her success.
of our past selections continue to live up to our predictions, And what about Dina Asher-Smith, who we featured
including the likes of actress Cynthia Erivo, who is currently in 2016? The British athlete secured a memorable
gearing up to play Harriet Tubman in a Hollywood biopic; 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay treble at the European
Anne-Marie Imafidon, whose social enterprise Stemettes Championships in Berlin in August!
has gone from strength-to-strength, even hosting the Duke So, which future superstars are we showcasing this year?

Sherrie Silver Ifeanyi Oganwu
Creative Director, Choreographer, Actress, Philanthropist Artist, Designer
If you were to ask anyone clued up on popular trends, Ifeanyi’s work draws inspiration from across the
what the biggest music videos of 2018 were, Childish globe. His furniture creations have been described as
Gambino’s This is America would be on most lists. The ‘minimalist and futurist, exploring modernist notions
thought-provoking clip which contains hard-hitting and of design in relation to the body, whilst working fluidly
socially conscious messages about identity, culture and between the fields of architecture, art and design’.
race in today’s America had the Ifeanyi studied at a range of top establishments,
world transfixed for months including the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago;
following its release back in the Architectural Association, London; and Columbia
May. And one of the things University, New York. Since then he has worked for the
people couldn’t stop offices of John Ronan Architects, Chicago; Zaha Hadid
talking about was the Architects, London; and has collaborated with the
series of featured dances fashion design studio of Husse in Chalayan. In 2003,
from the African diaspora he joined the London-based structural engineering
that skilfully moves along practice of Adams Kara Taylor where he worked in
the narrative for the video, their Parametric Applied Research Team to develop an
and the creative director integrated approach to explore and represent complex
behind the choreography – architectural scenarios. In 2008, he founded Expand
23-year-old Sherrie Silver. Design Ltd, a London-based studio that explores the
Sherrie, who was born in Rwanda and moved to the boundaries of art, culture and technology.
UK when she was five, is also a dancer and actress. In 2017, he was selected as
She was chosen to work on the video following a part of the Superbenches
recommendation from Childish Gambino’s manager’s project (devised by creative
niece, who was a fan of the dance tutorials Sherrie director Felix Burrichter),
uploaded to YouTube, something she has been doing an installation of public
since she was a teenager and has continued to do furniture in Stockholm that
while studying for a degree in business marketing. saw ten designers invited to
For This is America, Sherrie incorporated ten push the concept of what
traditional dances from the African diaspora, such as public furniture can be and
the South African “Gwara Gwara”. The video has been reimagine the idea of a park
viewed more than 460 million times and earned her an bench as an “architectural
award in the Best Choreography category at the 2018 intervention” rather than a
MTV Video Music Awards. Sherrie has also worked for mere place to sit. Although Ifeanyi
African superstars Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and P-Square draws inspiration from across the globe, he has not
as well as Sean Paul. forgotten his roots. In the development of a site-
The budding philanthropist uses her platform to specific installation in Lagos, he is working within the
promote African cultures and develop programmes for architecture of his mentor Sir David Adjaye, to design
children and socially deprived women. new objects that complement the building.

118 Powerlist 2019