![]() When I first started getting into a lot of those white art spaces, there was an elitism that I felt. VICE: What first got you into creating art with durags?Īkinbola: I’m coming from a space where I don’t have any traditional art training-I was a communications major at SUNY Purchase. But as he continues to show his art-he's had exhibits in the Queens Museum and Belgium's Verbeke Foundation, among others-he finds viewers surprise him with their own personal stories that they see reflected in his work. There’s no real in between.” And as a first generation Nigerian-American who spent part of his childhood living in Lagos, the durag is a very Black American item that reminds him of assimilating into American culture. But for Akinbola, they’re an item that has helped him reflect on navigating his Blackness growing up in Columbia, Missouri, where he said he felt ashamed to wear a durag, “because if you’re Black in Missouri you either get to be the hood nigga, the African nigga, or the oreo. He finds that dynamic especially important in the art world, explaining, “For Black artists there’s a struggle of trying to actively keep your culture knowing that people are trying to buy that.”ĭurags can hold many different personal meanings for whoever has used them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |