When people engage my work
if they hear ‘oh there's this artist that builds with LEGO bricks’
what they see is not what they're expecting
I didn't see a lot of me in the things that I consumed
the things that helped to develop and foster
my understanding of the world and in many ways my creative self
comic books, movies, cartoons all these things
they didn't show me me
That disparity
has a tremendous effect on ones identity
and their relationship with the world around them.
Ekow Nimako
that's the way my mom would say it
Being Ghanaian
African culture is woven into everything that I am
and it plays out in my work too.
I define myself as an Afrofuturist
Afrofuturism, to me is a cultural aesthetic
it’s a movement that focuses
on some kind of futuristic narrative
but it's centered on black people and black people's experiences
My sculptural process is
it's unpredictable
I don't really know how I'm going to build something when I build it
I want a smooth exterior.
I want the shapes and the forms to be fluid
so it's always about the formal qualities of a sculpture
And there's no instructions for what I do
Part of my joy is like doing it myself and figuring it out
The problem solving aspect of it is as frustrating
as it is rewarding.
I don't want more kids growing up like me where
they love something so much but they don't see themselves in it
Because LEGO is such a tactile material
and it's synonymous with childhood and creative play
I had to do something that would engage young people
“One two three…
Building Beyond, exactly
And Building Beyond is about just that
Building Beyond, looking into the future."
A workshop where focus is Afrofuturism
where what the participants are building are brown faced
descendants of their own family
And I think if kids are building descendants
that look like them it reinforces their own identity
And if they're building descendants that don't look like them
perhaps it also starts to cultivate a sensitivity towards others
I've been fortunate
in that I've got to go to these places where my art exists
I've been to the UK and fiddling with my sculptures
in beautiful gallery settings. And the same can be said in Berlin
I've been to South Korea twice now and it's just been an amazing, amazing
experience and I never really thought that would be my life
I always knew that I was going to create something
I was just trying to do everything trying to find what that thing was
the one that would rise above all the rest
and it turned out to be the thing that was with me
my entire life
When people engage with my work
I want them to walk away
feeling so many things
Black is beautiful
black is sophisticated.
What's possible with LEGO bricks?
I want that to be part of the experience, I want people to engage it and..
and experience that kind of wonder and why...
why is he building only in black?
What does that mean?