Material

Roadsigns

By

Made in

Recycled 151

Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns
Roadsigns

Photos: Larissa Frimpong

It hurts you before it defends you

Vincent stated, as his elders say, “Kwantia y3 musuo”, meaning shortcuts are dangerous. The road signs he is reassembling and designing are meant to be the stopping point in his life. The works are intended to call the people who have gone through immigration and migration. Each of these combined signs, from “reserved,” “restricted,” “danger,” and “stop,” has made him more conscious of who he is and where he is. Each signage is a part of the checks and balances that he feels as an African man in the American system. Vincent mentioned he feels like he is in a constant state of stopping and changing directions so that he can learn how to fit into these spaces. In truth, it feels like the more he tries to fit into these systems, the more it affects his artwork, the more it affects his being. So, when he reconstructs and revisualises what these signs mean to him and can point to other migrants, they are meant to be holding spaces until he learns what the next step can be. Everything is a reminder to work within the system and not fight against what can help and hurt you. For example, the stop sign is evident in making you break all of your actions, but it is also vague because you must learn and then know when it is safe to go and continue on your way. This is Vincent’s reasoning behind the title "It hurts you before it defends you” which is his interpretation of the way he sees the US system versus my Ghanaian upbringing.

The size of the pieces is also a considerable signifier of how abruptly it can affect one’s life. For example, Danger, blends colour and size to draw awareness to himself and how he is being a chameleon in a new environment. He is updated to these new challenges, and the work now represents his feelings and how he is using my environment to adapt. As he walks the lonely road, there is no room for complaints and pain; he must go my way. The verse by O’Kenneth and xlimkid gives a poetic stance on the thoughts he uses my art to share. It goes, “On the lonely road I'm wilding. And I don’t know when I’m coming home.”

This hits on a massive part of his journey since he is a Ghanaian man away from his home, a visitor on foreign soil, away from what he knows, his culture, family, and upbringing. Yet, from the signs he has been given and has taken to re-invent himself, his story is both a struggle and a blessing because even though he won’t know when he will return to Ghana, his home will be with him as a guide that will never steer Vincent in the wrong direction.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.

Ingredients

Roadsigns, aluminum wire