ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is born from the African urban settings, typically where I was born, nurtured, and raised, as in my native country of Ghana. It was an area where I saw the petty traders every day, either carrying items on their heads or setting up small vendor shops along roads to make a daily bread. I was no exception to these urban practices, as my father was a second-hand clothing seller, and I was working in this business. This is where I really understood what it means to hustle on the urban streets, in all its honesty and endurance, and how the masses often overlook such people.

Grounded in this background, my work examines how street workers sustain Ghana’s informal economy. It explores how their work shapes who they are and how they live. My practice also examines how informal systems drive internal migration and connect people to wider global movements of people and trade. I investigate how the effects of colonialism shape the language and phrases street workers use in daily vending.

The work I make is characterized by diverse mixed-media approaches that regularly incorporate vibrant Ankara Fabrics and 24K gold leaf to create figurative and text paintings of my subjects and their stories, forming diptychs. I also use drawing media in my depictions of street landscapes and expanded works, frequently employing installation and immersive works, video performance, and documentary photography to capture these essences, including the colorful street scenes and the flow of traffic within which all the stories are embedded.

Through my work, I seek to restore a sense of pride and challenge stereotypical notions that these workers are pushed to the periphery, instead showing how they help shape culture and how interlinked global services, and networks depend on their activities.