Zohra Opoku never saw anyone who looked like her until her godmother took her to London from East Germany at 16 years old. "In London I realized that I was one of many," the Accra-based Ghanian/German multimedia artist told i-D during her recent Armory Show appearance in New York. "This kind of experience showed me how important it is that I know where I come from." It was around the time that Zohra started exploring her African roots that she really became interested in fashion. Though she had always seen clothes as a means of self-expression as a teenager growing up in the militantly bland Eastern Bloc GDR. She later studied fashion at University of Hamburg, then used her skills to create art: patchworks of West African textiles, photography, sculpture, screen-printing, and performance that examine fashion's role in African history and culture — and reflect the politics of her own hybrid identity. We talked to the artist about self-discovery, Scandinavian designers, and why she likes to hide in plants.
