Statement:

My work in this series Illusion of knowledge seeks to explore the general understanding of African culture as it relates to African Americans such as myself. Since high school I was perplexed as to why African history was not taught to the student body and have undertaken a journey to educate myself on the history of African Diaspora. I have even had my DNA tested to learn of my Nigerian and Congolese identity and create subjects in my work specifically to articulate my personal journey in connecting with this ancestry.

I feel it is important to glorify Blackness in my work and to promote African humanity and culture, especially following a 2018 incident where police broke my sister’s arm while she was recording a traffic stop that involved her boyfriend. I witnessed the event and was never the same. I felt dehumanized and enraged. Since that moment I became passionate about creating work that expressed my reality.

My subjects are nude African figure models that I identify with as self-portraits. The works are created through a compilation of charcoal drawing, collage and acrylic painting. Each piece is accentuated with a sacred African iconography such as the West African Janus Helmet Mask—composed of crocodile and warthog face and teeth, as well as two chameleons—which is used to ward off evil spirits in a community. It is used if a murder is committed or an animal attacks someone. The Iyoba or Queen of Benin pendant mask is also used. It is often worn by a king on their hip and represents the confidence of a son in their mothers’ guidance. Other masks including ones I specifically created myself are used throughout the series.

Curtis J. Austin, author of Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party, helps me question the shaping of the African identity. He explores how violence is used to perpetuate ignorance and deceit through miseducation. I intend for my work to engage viewers with the idea of nudity and its connection to innocence; it is meant to provoke admiration for knowledge. Artist Ebony Patterson series entitled …until you see them has also influenced my work with the way she incorporates feminine iconography such as flowers with young African male figures which dissociates young black males from being unempathetic or cold. 

My work ultimately though is unique to my experiences as a young African American artist. I focus on African consciousness instead of Eurocentric human consciousness and create work with a metaphysical—rather than Afrofuturist—aesthetic. The works in Illusion of Knowledge seek to present African culture in a world where it has been reinvented to establish a connection with African antiquity. I want the viewer to question information that they have accepted as fact without question and to also strip nudity of sexualization. Ultimately, though, I want this series to make the viewer feel empowered in the most beautiful way possible.