Different, but Not Abnormal: “Out” in Africa

This essay was originally presented as a speech I was invited to give at New York University’s conference Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West in 2013. The essay addresses my personal experiences as well as critical observations of the performance and production of identity in the context of Ghana in the twentieth century. By examining the ways that specific materials, icons, media, images, and objects interact and create a multiplicity of meaning and narratives within a body of work, I begin to uncover how these layers translate to and create discourse with my lived experience in Ghana. Through an exploration of my specific process as an artist in conversation with Ghana’s complex history, I begin to examine the complex implications of sexuality in Ghana.