On Identity And Representation with Ludovic Nkoth | AD 161
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About Ludovic: On October 16, 1994, Ludovic Nkoth (LNkoth) was born in Cameroon, West Africa. Growing up in African, Ludovic learned to express himself creatively at a very young age. Through his vibrant use of color and ability to capture life through a distinct lens, Ludovic\u2019s past time was consumed with rough sketches of the beautiful cities of Cameroon.
Ludovic\u2019s work is heavily informed by the events in his life which led him to move, as a young boy of 13 years old, from his native Cameroon to the United States. Leaving his birth-mother and family, the young man found solace and comfort in the creative process while being raised primarily as a stranger in a strange land. It wasn\u2019t until he migrated to the united states that he began to reconsider his own culture as a catalyst to locate his identity. For Ludovic, who learned to speak English as a teenager in a world completely alien to him, still \u2013 at times \u2013 finds himself displaced in his adopted country. In the states, he is viewed as an African, but in Africa, he is viewed American \u2013 leaving the passionate young artist in a sort of ambiguous and cyclical displacement of identity. Given the contentious issues of identity, patriotism, Confederate ideologies and racial bias growing in the States at the time of this writing, the paintings and his perspective seem of increasing relevance.
As such, the work presents a complex but highly personal investigation of a very personalized view of Africa; his family history; and the cultures, traditions, and ideas of Africa and its diaspora pre-and post-colonialism. They are approached with a type of naive brusqueness, an immediacy and boldness of colour that suggests both a passion and sense of discovery. African symbols such as masks, patterns, and other symbols of identity and culture remain consistent throughout. He states that through creation, the works attempt to \u201cregain the things that were taking away from [his] people. Things such as power, culture, the idea of self and the idea of being black and proud.\u201d
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Film by Werner Herzog \u201cCave of Forgotten Dreams\u201d
- The origins of creativity
- Growing up in Cameroon and moving to the US at the age of 13
- Meeting artist Kerry James Marshall
- Identity
- The civil war in his native country of Cameroon
- Loving one\u2019s self
- Understanding traditional \u201cvoodoo\u201d practices in Africa versus the demonization of \u201cvoodoo\u201d by European settlers
- Comparing the historical colonization patterns of the United States and Africa
- The importance of preserving Cameroonian tradition
- Clarity through the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine
- Political structures in Cameroon