At a party in a vacant house full of young people, the reggae pounding and ganja smoke thick in the air, Gates was struck by the joylessness of the revels. The mood was brittle. Faces were set hard. Nobody laughed or even spoke.

Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun is a writer and curator. He is the Chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, overseeing the UK’s leading public art programme, and the former Director of the ICA, London.