Dr. Fahamu Pecou is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose work bridges hip-hop, fine art, and popular culture to examine contemporary representations of Black men. This exhibition surveys two recent bodies of work: End Of Safety and They We Didn’t Realize We Were Seeds: We the Roses. Bridging the two series will be an immersive video installation that juxtaposes and synthesizes the themes of Blackness, agency, and identity.
End of Safety examines how Blackness as cultural hegemony has shaped African American culture, suggesting it is often imposed as an identity rather than self-defined. This exhibition explores the tension between the burden of Blackness and the comfort that arises from it. Pecou imagines the “end of safety” to be “the delicate and dangerous act of seeing oneself for the first time pure, whole, and unencumbered by the things the world tells you you are.”
They We Didn’t Realize We Were Seeds: We the Roses explores Black identity across time and cultures encompassing art, fashion, politics, and spirituality. Pecou employs afrotropes, a term coined by art historians Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson for recurring visuals forms that have shaped Black visual culture and social identity since slavery, fueling the Black experience in unexpected ways. Pecou remarks, “Through my work, I aim to identify and utilize the afrotropes, showcasing their inherent power and significance—transformed into totems or fetish objects that carry cultural weight and serve a protective function, safeguarding Black subjectivity and vitality.”
Organized by the Frist Art Museum
Image: Fahamu Pecou. Surrender, 2023. Acrylic on canvas; 60 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist. © Fahamu Pecou
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