Layers Unveiled with Derek Fordjour
Words by Miski Omar | Self Portrait created by the artist for A-M Journal
The Black experience is a somewhat ‘performance of competency’, a ‘putting on’, involving a veneer of confidence and obsession with hyper-independence. You’re a circle trying to fit within a triangle cut-out, performing as a means to adapt within systems that may not readily recognise your multifaceted identities. At least, this is what interdisciplinary artist Derek Fordjour believes: that this need to be capable and the ‘romance with independence’ is paralleled within both Black American experiences and the diasporic African experience.
His profound interest in the point at which “blackness intersects” makes Fordjour’s work almost autobiographical. Born to migrant Ghanaian parents in the Deep South of America in the 1970s, Fordjour is no stranger to the richness and complexity of navigating such parallel yet diverse identities.
How does this performance of competency manifest in his artistry? As Fordjour progresses in his career, boasting numerous successes and dubbed by The New York Times as being on a 'journey to stardom', he finds himself thrust increasingly into the public arena. Both Jay-Z and Beyoncé can say they own a Derek Fordjour piece, uniting all three within the realm of Black Excellence. Sitting within this arena comes with a heightened level of visibility – an interplay Fordjour works to place a microscope over in order to examine what might occur under the multiplication of eyes on Black bodies, who are already subject to existing systematic scrutiny.
Within Fordjour’s work, sportsmanship, gaming and performance are central characters; characters who are not strangers to society's panoptical gaze. He dissects this ‘historical DNA’ of the ‘packaging’ of Black bodies into roles in entertainment, such as singers, dancers, and athletes. “The public arena that African Americans and Africans have really occupied is in the space of entertainment,” he muses. “The first foray into public life was through entertainment.”
He ponders whether this entry point into this arena of visibility is a marker of success, or does this limited representation perpetuate stereotypes and hinder recognition of the multifaceted talents and contributions of the Black man across various fields?
Fordjour works through these questions in his latest exhibition, SCORE, by reimagining the space at Petzel Gallery's Chelsea, New York, location to present a multi-sensory exhibition experience. Occupying three rooms, the exhibition combines multimedia, paintings, sculptures, architectural installations and performance art, offering a diverse and multidimensional presentation that examines and contests the packaging, pigeonholing and performance of the Black man.
His painting, The Parthenon of Truncated Ambition, depicts Black bodies on a large rectangular canvas arranged in a Last Supper-esque formation, made up of basketball players, rappers and pole dancers in an assembly line. They are seen through the borders of a carnival-show wagon adorned with circus-tent stripes, indicating a sense of spectacle. The picture is layered with acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, glitter and foil on newspaper rendering a viscous texture, tactile even via a phone screen.
“The layers in my work really are a reflection of my thinking,” Fordjour offers in an attempt to integrate multiple narratives and emotions, of his own perspectives and the multifaceted range of ideas within his creations. In the painting’s title, Derek directly references ‘truncated ambition’, the psychological phenomena wherein one’s ambitions are limited, curtailed or cut short by external forces. This prompts an inquiry into how Black individuals in the entertainment sphere might experience their ambitions curtailed by societal constraints.
Addressing his own performance anxiety as an artist, Fordjour ventures into performance art alongside choreographer and educator Sidra Bell, co-choreographing a dance piece within SCORE titled ARENA. This piece underscores the performativity associated with blackness, intertwining labour, history, power and race. Dancers clad in carnival attire perform theatrically amid an encircling audience; a sea of eyes. The performance's score traverses time, embracing the rhythmic jingle-jangle banjo of the Deep South, segueing into Childish Gambino’s examination in his powerful, rallying song, This is America.
The momentum of the dance shifts towards an almost hopeful tone of resilience and endurance against such limiting forces, encapsulated in Kendrick Lamar's Alright – a compelling anthem of survival amid adversity. The refrain, ‘We gon' be alright’, acts as a mantra, imparting reassurance and encouragement to persist despite the constraining systemic structures.
If Black identity’s main access to success is through the entertainment complex, does this reduce individuals to a singular performative path, deemed acceptable by an institutional gaze? Is to be Black to perform? To perform competency? To perform independence? A performance that is the bringer of success but also the harbinger of reductivity? If those who are black are the performers then who is the gatekeeper of the performance? The casting agent?
This interplay evokes the ‘double consciousness’ concept put forth in 1903 by American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, whereby African Americans are compelled to see themselves both through their own cultural lens and through the lens of how society, particularly the dominant culture, perceives them. This dual awareness creates a constant internal tension, and an awareness of how their identity is constructed within a society that devalues and marginalises their cultural essence. To survive is to conform to roles that allow them recognition in a segregated society.
What options exist for social mobility within this system? You accept the ‘packaging’, sign off on terms and agreement to contract yourself to narrow roles, thereby restricting diverse representations and simplifying one's multifaceted nature. As Fordjour approaches 50, SCORE serves as a personal reflection rather than a mere quantifier of achievements. CONfidence Man, a mixed-media piece from the show, suggests an examination of potential drawbacks to confidence, hinted at by the capitalised letters. Essentially, it's a moment of self-assessment.
Fordjour views his life as, “a kind of score written with all the dramas, highs, lows and lessons learned”. This marks a seminal juncture – an opportunity to mine that information and explore his evolution, understanding how he has shaped his sense of trust, safety, and accomplishment.
Illuminating non-entertainment roles as avenues for success in his art, Fordjour depicts the operations of a black-owned catering company in Memphis, where he was raised. Fordjour's recontextualization in another mixed-media piece, Mayweather Catering Company, challenges entrenched norms. Historically, Black people held service-oriented roles such as cleaning, cooking and traditional trades. However, figures like Beneva Mayweather showcase how reshaping these roles spawns social mobility. This act represents a reclamation of power – an assertion of autonomy over predetermined roles – allowing individuals to recontexualise their destinies on their terms.
Fordjour further plays with recontextualisation as a vehicle to evoke other histories. This is seen in the artist’s 2020 exhibition SHELTER, where he reimagined corrugated steel, which he explains is, “a material that was made popular through the British Army, during various occupations in Africa and the Caribbean”. By infusing this material into his art, Fordjour pays homage to diasporic connections, offering a visual trajectory of Black bodies across continents, reflecting their historical movements and cultural amalgamations.
Humans are multi-tiered, with many elements shaping our individual ‘scores’. Fordjour shows us that to mine each layer adds depth and texture. He not only invites others to turn the pages of his visual memoir with him but to write on them. When you engage with Fordjour's work, you connect with the man himself. His art isn't just a creation; it's an offering, a call to partake in the narrative he presents, a narrative we are all fortunate to engage with and interpret in our own way.