I Stand By Me Exhibition

Amoako Boafo in conversation with Osei Bonsu, Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, London.

Osei: Your paintings engage with this notion of visibility in a sensitive way. They seem to be about an internal struggle to be seen and represented in the world. Did you think your interest in portraiture developed from your experiences as a black man living in Vienna?

Amoako: Why do people always ask that question? I stick to what I want to do. I question what it actually does to viewers when faced with black people. I just stick to what I was doing. I think it has helped the movement because there are so many black people in Vienna that showed the necessity of what I was doing, and they supported it from the beginning. Anytime I ask them to sit in the studio, they make time and come. Anytime I asked them to take pictures, they make time to come, so I can take pictures and paint.

Osei: I’m interested in your time growing up in Ghana, a place where black people are the majority and race is rarely discussed in the same terms as it might be in the West. How do you think the idea of blackness and black culture is different in Vienna, and does it necessarily correspond with notions of race and identity?

Amoako: Well, in Ghana I never had to question myself in terms of blackness. There, I am part of the majority so it was never a question. That’s why it was a bit of a shock to have this constant question of, ‘Why do you only paint black people?’ Because for me, I want to paint people who have had the same experiences as me. I want to see myself and have people see themselves in me.

Osei: We know that art has the potential to change peoples’ attitudes and perceptions. Do you feel like your paintings try to address that?

Amoako: My paintings are for documenting the people around me and where I am, but I also think they challenge the notion of how people think about blackness.