Endnotes¹


Ekow Buadu
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    Artwork

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    Statement My artwork depicts somewhat of a dreamcatcher-like shrine of ancestral spiritual protection and memory that is intended to reflect the meditative practices I’ve engaged in in the past few months to help navigate my own anxiety and ADHD. The grunge-style mini posters at each corner many with darker or visually distorted backgrounds are meant to also imitate what one might ‘see’ beneath closed eyes or even a different visual spectrum in this sort of context. The video on the computer screen with the 80s and 90s commercials juxtaposed with more modern images and GIFs also represents the parallels between generational and societal learning that can occur and therefore unlearning that sometimes must take place when confronting the stories one may absorb unconsciously when caught in between two worlds. I encountered this experience in college as both a black person trying to achieve success in predominantly white spaces and a child of African immigrants from a culturally-rich background but also with contrasting social experiences and sometimes conflicting perspectives. The goal of the video is to simulate the resolution of the traditional and communal with the individual and modern, or in the case of ADHD accepting the part of oneself that values discipline and peace with the part that can also fluctuate or be somewhat impulsive and chaotic (inner child). The final feature are the Adinkra, or traditional Ghanaian symbols between each two posters that mean Unity, the Supremacy of God, Energy, and Forgiveness, respectively, again representing the resolution between the traditional and unconventional parts of oneself to achieve growth and happiness in life. The symbols also appear in the video as coded “mazes” the viewer can see the 2D and 3D perspective of navigating in between the images and cards appearing on screen.

    Student

    music, work, art, feel, wrote, spirituality, pandemic, emotional regulation, questions, guess, higher dimension, started, intangible, dopamine, weird, space, define, tucson
    “Using strongholds of spirituality and tarot cards to explain the kind of, zooming out or becoming present in the process that can sometimes aid in that. Maybe not necessarily, like solve the whole thing. But that I found sort of helpful in my navigation of dealing with some of those emotional issues.”
    “The sequence of tarot cards actually, like follows the lyrics to one song I wrote, it's really close to my heart. It's kind of a way for me to remember it in my mind personally too as a tool for understanding like, I don't know, I guess like, the higher dimension of it all, or like the higher meaning of it all.”
    “I feel sometimes music kind of for me gets to the intangible part that you don't necessarily need to put words to. So I find that like, super helpful in that way of, you know, even if you don't necessarily have explanation, like a compact explanation for like, what your spirituality is, or like how you define it, there's always like that place where there's something that you know, you can sort of get dopamine from but I think people also like resonate with on their own levels, even if like maybe they relate to in the exact same way.”
    “I feel like there's definitely certain parts of music that sometimes, they just kind of happen or it's almost like, it's a really nice way that something came out. And sometimes I wonder, kind of like on a more meta level, ‘Oh, if I hadn't gone through this thing would I have been able to do that take like that?’ Because it was just, so perfect for the circumstances, the situation I was in.”
    “I make my own cover art for the songs that I do. And I feel like that is something that at least allowed me to gain more interest in the visual art making space. And it's sort of a reason I wanted to learn more about visual arts, and how to play with those things a little bit more intentionally.”
    Endnotes¹

    Ekow Buadu
  • *
    •

    Artwork

  • 1
    •
  • 2
    •
  • 3
    •
  • 4
    •
  • 5
    •
  • 6
    •

    Statement My artwork depicts somewhat of a dreamcatcher-like shrine of ancestral spiritual protection and memory that is intended to reflect the meditative practices I’ve engaged in in the past few months to help navigate my own anxiety and ADHD. The grunge-style mini posters at each corner many with darker or visually distorted backgrounds are meant to also imitate what one might ‘see’ beneath closed eyes or even a different visual spectrum in this sort of context. The video on the computer screen with the 80s and 90s commercials juxtaposed with more modern images and GIFs also represents the parallels between generational and societal learning that can occur and therefore unlearning that sometimes must take place when confronting the stories one may absorb unconsciously when caught in between two worlds. I encountered this experience in college as both a black person trying to achieve success in predominantly white spaces and a child of African immigrants from a culturally-rich background but also with contrasting social experiences and sometimes conflicting perspectives. The goal of the video is to simulate the resolution of the traditional and communal with the individual and modern, or in the case of ADHD accepting the part of oneself that values discipline and peace with the part that can also fluctuate or be somewhat impulsive and chaotic (inner child). The final feature are the Adinkra, or traditional Ghanaian symbols between each two posters that mean Unity, the Supremacy of God, Energy, and Forgiveness, respectively, again representing the resolution between the traditional and unconventional parts of oneself to achieve growth and happiness in life. The symbols also appear in the video as coded “mazes” the viewer can see the 2D and 3D perspective of navigating in between the images and cards appearing on screen.

    Student