- Hello! - How are you?
- Iím good. And you? - Blessed, man. Very good.
Congratulations on everything.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you. - Amoako,
I came because I wanted to speak about your work,
and I am super impressed by your eye,
your vision, and being of Ghanaian blood,
Kim asked me to come and speak with you.
So, I like his taste, and the people that he likes,
we tend to like the same things.
So thatís my relationship with him; Iím a big fan of his.
I also want to say that ìLong Walk to Freedomî
is a favourite of mine.
- I just want to say. - Ah, yeah, thanks bubba!
Thank you!
I think my relationship with Kim is very, very fresh.
In Miami, I did the Rubell Museum opening.
And after the opening, thatís when Mera introduced Kim to me.
I had met so many people,
so the name stuck but not the image.
After I was contacted,
and we had all these long email conversations,
and then they finally agreed to come to Ghana for a studio visit,
I remember going to the washroom
and washing my hands,
and there was another guy next to me washing his hands.
We both said hi,
and then later on we met again in the studio.
And I was like ìOh, youíre Kim!î
And I was like ìYeah, Iím Amoako!î
And it was then we started talking.
When you paint,
fashion is a big part,
but do you concentrate on the face first or on the shirt first?
Ah, itís just random.
I donít like routines.
I will only have to be able to put up the canvas on the wall
and then have a pencil to do a sketch,
and then how I feel thatís how I proceed.
I mean fashion, for me, fashion is a statement,
what people wear is a statement.
For me, itís how one celebrates themself.
Yes, for me,
the fashion side isnít the first and foremost.
Itís part of a layered approach.
What the character wears is one of the things I will deal with last.
But sometimes what happens is that I may be trying to find a character,
I canít find him,
I put on something that he might wear,
and suddenly, you start to move differently,
you start to really fill that space.
If Iím rehearsing a character
or Iím reading or just rehearsing,
the black t-shirt or the black sweats is almost like my uniform
because it says nothing about the character,
you know, and itís almost like being naked.
I can roll around in this outfit,
I can throw my character up against a wall,
I can play him big, big, big,
I can play him small, small, small.
But then obviously when I put the characterís clothes on,
something else happens.
For me, itís also a bit experimental
when I start to play with colours or clothes in my work
because I had moments,
letís say two years ago, using the colour pink, for example,
and people were questioning the colour so much
that you kind of also want to question yourself
why you use the colour pink.
But then again it also
makes you aware that it does something to them,
and for them to be questioning you so much about pink,
I will want to use it more.
So there are some clothes
that I will use just to see how people feel about it.
And if it does something for me thatís where the conversation starts,
because I also want to know why you question my pink
or why you question me holding a flower.
Before I actually painted myself a lot, because I had to be okay with myself
and how I portrayed myself for others to kind of understand my work.
And so I will look at facial expressions,
how celebratory they are, the self-confidence.
Then, I will look at,
I mean, thatís also another angle:
whatever the person is doing in society, how they are creating spaces.
Ghana for me, since 2013,
I have not been here for long,
like this year I have been here for seven months.
Normally I will go and come back for like a week or two,
because thatís the only time I have to spend here,
and I feel like I donít want go.
In terms of how it influenced my work,
I wanted to paint something different
from what people know to be African art.
It has to do with women carrying a pot or babies,
and I just wanted to change the narrative
because itís not the only thing that women do here or people do here.
We donít always go to the market.
There are people that do amazing stuff.
There are writers, actors, there is so much amazing stuff here.
When I went to Accra for the first time,
for maybe three months making a movie,
I didnít realise how much
I was attached to my Ghanaian roots
until I went there.
It was a defining moment for me as a person, as a man.
It was like a missing link.
My mum is Ga,
the tribe of Ga,
and I had no point of reference of her tribe
or people until I went to Accra,
and then some things just fell in place for me.
It was really interesting actually.
Iím born and raised in Ghana, I lived here for thirty years
before travelling to Vienna.
I never had to question anything Ghanaian about me,
because I lived in it, I was bred in it.
But once I travelled, I had to question it
because there were different ways that people were looking at ìblacknessî,
so I had to question it a bit.
When I came back, I kind of loved it more,
because I felt like they were taking it away from me
and they want me to change my mindset
about the whole so-called black continent.
This year, Iíve been here for seven months,
normally I will go and come back for like a week or two,
but this year Iíve been here for seven months
and I feel like I donít want to go.
Yeah, thatís what I do.
But there are a few things that I would like to say.
In terms of music and DJing, those are some of the things
I would actually like to learn at some point.
You want to DJ?
Yeah, I mean I love music, so why not?
I mean, if I have the time, sure.
Do you play any instruments?
I actually bought a guitar and a piano,
but itís just in the studio.
I have to make time for it.
Youíve got to pick it up.
I learned to play the guitar in the lockdown.
I bought a guitar,
I got some tutorials off YouTube,
and I literally just, you know, monkey see, monkey do.
This was like, listen, play, listen,
and before you know it, it became a habit.
Everyday I was picking it up.
And now I can play decent enough to write a song.
Wow, thatís impressive.
You paint with your hands, right?
- Yeah. - So youíve got a good connection
with your fingers, thatís the word.
I always say, if I didnít manage to be an artist,
whatever job I would do, I would definitely do with my hands,
so I have to stay in that range.
Let me help you with the DJing too, bro.
Oh, that would be amazing!
When you DJ,
even though youíre going to be playing the music you love,
the actual art of DJing is about how your seamlessly tell that story.
The thing about dancing when youíre DJing
is people like to just continuously be taken on a journey:
ups, downs, emotion, celebration.
And itís how you say Iíve got these ten songs that I love,
if I put this one with this one and then this one,
and then that one,
then you're starting to paint a picture, no pun intended.
Youíre doing that same thing.
My boss is listening.
After this conversation, I will talk to her again to get me this equipment.
Yo man, listen, congratulations again on your collection,
itís incredible by the way.
Amoako, good luck,
- speak soon. - Same to you, alright, bye.
See you later.