Fahamu Pecou
Word.Up, 2016
Artist Statement
My work seeks to provide a crucial intervention in contemporary representations of Black masculinity. I began my career experimenting with the branding strategies employed in hip-hop music and entertainment. These experiments ultimately led me to question not only the stereotypes engendered by the commodification of hip-hop culture, but more, to consider how the influence of historic and social configurations of race, class and gender impact and inform these representations.
Word.Life, 2016.
Caged Bird, 2015.
Soul Power, 2014.
I appear in my work not in an autobiographical sense, but as an allegory. My character “Fahamu Pecou is The Shit!” embodies the traits typically associated with black men in hip-hop and juxtaposes them within a fine art context. This character becomes a stand-in to represent the ideals and ideas of black masculinity and both the realities and fantasies projected from and onto black male bodies. Through these works I seek to raise critical questions about the types of images and representations that come to inform the reading and performance of black masculinity. Using parody and satire, my works expose our obsession with celebrity, our exploitation of black masculinity and the divide that racial ignorance and stereotypes perpetuate. These ideas are expressed in paintings, videos, original music and performance-based work with each medium allowing me to articulate various nuances around my themes.