africanah.org

Arena for Contemporary African, African-American and Caribbean Art

Author: Sasha Dees

text: email

Nicole Awai

Awai2

 

“In my early teens, my mother didn’t allow me to wear makeup. Her way of negotiating that was to allow me to wear nail polish. The nail polish was more than an accessory, it was a creative outlet and it became an expression of my identity. In 2002 when I realized that I was still in possession of a bottle of nail polish that I had since I was 15 years old, I started to think about the ways in which women use cosmetics as a means of personal codification. I originally made paintings in which I used and arranged the nail polish colors into a map legend of sorts and called it ‘The Sensation Code’. The code would imply further possible narrative directions in the work. I was plaing with language, with the viewer’s expectation for familiar canons – Awai spreads her fingers wide open looking at her transparent flesh/pinky colored polished nails – and sometimes a nail polish name would start off an idea for a work or,  when seeing a name on a bottle, one of the ideas that I am working on would come to mind and it would become part of it.”

Sasha Dees in conversation with Trini-American Nicole Awai.

 

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LEONARDO BENZANT

Leonardo Benzant Afrosupernatural Combat

 

“Becoming an adult I had different experiences and encounters that made me start opening up for my ancestry. It was the beginning of what probably will be a life long research into my ancestry and African Diasporic culture. I read many books, essays, and articles, listened to music, went to performances, lectures and met with different people that became short and long term mentors, a continuous learning curve. Finding Palo and its community felt like I came home, it made sense to me, it gave me freedom.  Palo fills me with a positive energy and empowers me to be who I am.”

Sasha Dees interviews the New York based artist Leonardo Benzant.

 

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