I first stumbled onto Romare Bearden's work while exploring artists’ books in my grad school library. I immediately saw a reflection of myself—collage also is central to how I create, both stylistically and thematically. Speaking to style, patterns and montages are essential in my films and videos, with rhythm generated both visually and musically out of seemingly disparate elements. I archive, excavate and then organize different texts of cultural ethnicity and historical issues, which are then filtered through my subjectivity.

Thematically, the cultural duality Bearden wrestled with—as an artist and someone of African descent—similarly informs my own work, including Split Ends: I Feel Wonderful (2012), my film about black American hairstyles in the 1970s. As a member of an immigrant family from Ghana, I am a “walking contradiction,” and I channel this cultural tension as part of my filmic investigations.