Fahamu Pecou, on embracing Yoruba in 'The Messenger'

In a forthcoming conversation between Atlanta-based Fahamu Pecou and New York-based José Parlá, the two artists talk about collaborating for their first major museum exhibit as part of the High Museum's ongoing Wifredo Lam retrospective Imagining New Worlds.

But in this outtake from our convo, Pecou talks specifically about how his exposure to Lam's syncretization of modernism, surrealism and Santería encouraged Pecou to further embrace the influence of Yoruba that has long played an underlying role in his art. In his series The Messenger, which is included in the exhibit, Pecou fuses his exploration of black identity and masculinity with the symbolism of Orishas in the West African-based Yoruba religion. Eshu, the deity of the crossroads, is also known as the trickster god. That trickster image, particularly as it relates to the portrayals of black males in hip-hop, is an overarching theme Pecou thoroughly explores in his self-portraits. In this case, his renderings take on a more fluid tone as his painted figure dons the double-sided mask representing Eshu's ability to see forward and backward. Like Lam, Pecou's realizing new and provocative ways to syncretize his cultural influences in the ongoing exhibit. He expounded on it when asked how traveling abroad has influenced his work. 

Fahamu Pecou: "One of the things that I think is really interesting in terms of my trajectory is that prior to doing the Fahamu Pecou is the Shit campaign, a lot of the work that I was doing had to do with spirituality. I was introduced to Yoruba culture in 2002, and at that time, I had been doing these works that I considered to be kind of like spirits or guardian angels. But when I was introduced to Yoruba, I discovered that a lot of the ways that they describe ancestor veneration was stuff that I was doing in my work. I didn’t realize that I was engaging with that spiritual system in that kind of way. So it was really amazing for me to find a spiritual home in that place, having come to it through artwork. And here we are, some 10-plus years later, and I’m deeper into that religion now, and to be able to find a way to bring it back to the surface of my work and connect it to movements like Negritude and hip-hop has been really interesting. I’m seeing things cycling around a little bit stronger and more impactful. So I think that part of the journey has been greater than just physical traveling."