I never learned how to be adequately black. I never learned how to be black at all.
There is something very strange and unsettling for me about making a work that doesn't fit with what's the norm or what's acceptable. There's something both liberating about it and challenging. I can imagine it doing more harm than good.
I took a political stance early on, but I don't think my work is overtly political. I respond to events.
As a child, I was subjected to a lot of spaghetti Westerns and hated them. I wanted the Indians to win - or just not be so sad!
The illusion is that most of my work is simply about past events: a point in history and nothing else.
Once you open up the Pandora's box of race and gender... you're never done.
