(machine clattering)
- [Azikiwe] Hi,
thanks for stopping by my name's Azikiwe Mohammed.
And we're here at my studio in Jersey city
at Mana Contemporary.
(upbeat jaunty music)
I'm trying to think what I have to take out.
that would be fun.
Let's see.
(bags rustling)
Oh, police piggy bank right.
Check it out.
(coins clatter)
Tight.
This is a fun one.
"May your house be warm,
your friends be many,
and your sausages long."
Then look, I just happened to have one sitting here.
This is one of mine.
Those are the names of four different black beaches
across the US.
So it's research.
All this stuff is useful for in here
while I'm making things.
(sewing machine whirrs)
My job isn't the capital "A" art person.
The word artist feels a little funky,
kind of like something
emanates from you
from your, you know, cult of genius,
behold, right?
That's the whole, get outta here.
Doesn't make any sense.
(machine whirrs)
I'm not very good at precious things.
So I don't use that word "artist,"
I suppose I would self describe
as a guy who makes stuff.
Builder, I say a lot.
I build a pretty wide variety of objects.
Gold jewelry, paintings,
neon sculpture, furniture
photography, puppets,
clothing, tapestries, embroidery work.
Trying to use what I know best as a touchstone.
There are some things
that are clearly very specific to
black people and black homes.
In general, wood is a less expensive material.
So you'll find it in a lot of lower moneyed people's homes.
Warm colors to come home to,
are the opposite of being yelled at by a manager
Tones that live in spaces
that I know have said yes to me.
(machine engine rumbles)
When I'm making spaces, it needs to be inviting.
- Hi. Hello.
If you're interested
we're having painting classes here, outside today.
So just hop over to the tent, you have to say hi, and we'll
we'll give you some stuff.
Thank you very much.
- [Woman's Voice] Can you paint anything?
- Yeah, you can paint anything.
This is meant to be a starting place for you.
- [Woman's Voice] Okay.
- But if this starting place
ends you up somewhere else, that's also fine.
The only rule is that you get to say yes to you.
- The thing that I hope to make most frequently
is something that covers some form of a need
for someone.
I'm not sure what kind of sandwich this one is.
I think meatloaf sandwich, right?
Ever had one of those?
It's not a great bottle of wine, right?
But it works.
One of the things that's a bonus
of the art space is you can turn one thing
into another thing pretty easily.
So I make fake food and then I can sell it
and then turn that into real food that I can give to people.
(trolley rattles)
(coins clatter)
(bag ruffles)
- [Man's Voice] Thank you, thank you
- [Azikiwe] You're welcome.
One way to say yes to a need that we all have is food stuff.
You know, you gotta, you gotta eat.
- You're welcome.
- Every other week
we distribute approximately 140 bags of food
Each bag a solid three to five meals
- Best salad ever.
- You're welcome.
- Make things less shitty for whoever.
That feels like the only thing
that humans are supposed to do.
Home for me is in Tribeca, lower Manhattan.
I've lived there my whole life.
A lot of people talk about lofts and artists.
I didn't know any of those people.
No, my dad is a working photographer
in addition to school photographer.
The relationship that I had to the arts
was workers.
It's a job like any other,
people that live here, that work here
those people are normally left out of the story
of what New York is, right?
Like who are the people
as part of the 42nd street cleanup authority.
So trying to figure out how you can add
some of those humans
back into this space.
So the idea was a souvenir shop.
Generally in black and brown neighborhoods
is always jewelry, liquor, pizza, thrift store.
You can sort of start piecing together,
both who's buying what in the neighborhood,
what people are interested in.
So it's all of the things
that are normally in those spaces.
Just slightly different
speaking to a New York that I know very well.
- [Announcer] ♪ Big Apple Gifts And Souvenirs ♪
- [Azikiwe] Welcome to Big Apple Gifts And Souvenirs
protecting you from the rain.
Stay warm and stay cool at the same time
Big Apple Gifts And Souvenirs.
It's a souvenir shop.
Yeah. Here, come on in.
Yeah, so trying to have objects
that include a lot of the other people that live here
work here, that are from here.
If tourists are going to be coming to that space
to find objects and say this is what New York looks like,
I think it's a missed opportunity
to not have some people that look like us in that suitcase.
When you can hand somebody back an object that is them
that has their stories inside of it
and that they can hand to somebody else,
there's not a lot of information that needs to be exchanged
cause the object is doing the heavy lifting.
- It's a starting place.
Not a, not a, not a destination.
- [Man's Voice] Yeah. Wow.
(paper rustles)
- [Azikiwe] The role of an artist
is still in service of whomever.
This should be something that you're able to take
or something that we can share together.
And myself as a maker of objects,
this seems to be useful to humans, to whatever degree.
So as long as it's useful then I'll keep doing this job.