A woman bites into a watermelon. Three girls take a lift in London's Trellick TowerA tower block on a housing estate in London that opened in 1972. It is famous for its brutalist architectural style. , then roll tyres across deserted playground. An old man walks across a playing field and holds up a sign reading "All is well."

These are scenes from Ayo Akingbade's short film Tower XYZ. Made when Ako was 22, it was given a special mention at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany. In the eight years since then she has been widely praised and had a solo exhibition at London's famous Whitechapel Gallery.

Akingbade was born in London to NigerianFrom Nigeria, Africa's most populated nation. parents. As a film student, "I was ready to shake up the world," she told an interviewer.¹

But it took her a while to find her feet in the film industry: "I'm from HackneyAn area of London that neighbours Tower Hamlets. - I didn't grow up in this environment where I'm the only Black person. I didn't even know I was poor. It was a realisation I had much later."

She refused to be discouraged and now has 17 short films to her name.

Hackney is central to her work. She particularly worries about the effect on the local people of the gentrificationWhen a poor area of a city dramatically transforms into a wealthy neighbourhood, often due to an influx of wealthier people. which began when she was a teenager.

Tower XYZ was the first part of a trilogy on this theme. Next came Street 66, about the regenerationThe act of improving a system or place, to make it more economically successful. of a BrixtonAn area in south London. estate and the work of Dora Boatemah, who campaigned tirelessly for council tenantsIn the UK, people, often on low incomes, who rent their home from the local authority, rather than a landlord. ' rights. The third film, Dear Babylon, imagined a dystopianRelating to an imagined society where there is great suffering or injustice.  city. 

Akingbade has also found inspiration on Nigeria. The Fist tracks the working day at a Guinness factory 20 miles from LagosNigeria's largest city..

"The camera widens to show the workers tiny against the equipment, or passing along walkways like ghosts," writes Laura Cumming in a review for The Guardian. "The separation between people and regimented capitalistRelated to an economic system based on private ownership of businesses and goods. order grows ever more apparent."

Discussing Tower XYZ Akingbade says: "Some have said it's a call to action. I would say it's just about existing."²

Can art change the world?

Yes: It can engage people's emotions and encourage them to take action in a way that simply hearing or reading about a problem rarely does. Even a three-minute film can leave a lasting impression.

No: The only things that can are politics, economics and military might. WH Auden wrote that "Poetry makes nothing happen" and the same is true of visual art: all it can offer is consolationA comforting fact after being disappointed..    

Or... No, but it can remind people of their common humanity. When Picasso's Guernica was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery, visitors left boots in front of it for soldiers defending Spain's republic.