VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1
THE BUILD ISSUE
I leave elements of the first layer visible for the audience to connect with and follow the creative process.
CÉLIA AGBOLOTO
This issue explores how Black artists construct identity, memory, and meaning—brick by brick. The work in these pages spans childhood memories, digital experimentation, and centuries-old symbolism. Together, they remind us that identity doesn’t arrive fully formed—it’s built. Whether through dots, gestures, garments, or fragments of the past, each artist offers a method of assembly—a system of remembering, reflecting, and remaking.
Thematic Explorations
“The fingerprint becomes the only sign that allows me to express this individuality in a graphic way.”
—Franck Ezan
What defines us and who gets to decide? What are the building blocks of our identity?
For Franck Ezan, the fingerprint is a singular identity marker drawn from his experience growing up as a twin. Célia Agboloto uses thousands of dots to document the psychological layers of a life. “Each painting is a page within a biography,” she says of her pointillist portraits, “displaying past transgressions and current psychology.” Boris Anje reclaims fashion as power, drawing inspiration from the sapeurs of the Republic of Congo. Their sharp suits, he notes, are “a statement against societal norms and economic constraints.” And for Cédric Tchinan, art is a release: “We are not always true to ourselves. Art is the only way to externalize what we truly feel without fear.”
“Through Abfillage, I use photography and newspaper collage to preserve narratives—fragments of history that might otherwise fade.”
—Prosper Aluu
Artists turn memory into material—layering photographs, textures, and digital tools to reflect the past and imagine what’s next.
Prosper Aluu’s collaged compositions become “visual diaries,” blending political narratives with personal reflection. Alhassane Konté turns childhood into a force for resistance: “If we want to bring about change, it would be wise to start with children” he says, layering sawdust and light into tranquil landscapes that speak to loss, renewal, and time stretched thin. RJ Gardner captures beauty in the overlooked: a couple at a game, the way the sun hits a window, a car parked alone. “It’s the small details and moments of life I love,” he says. Cecil Lee, through his process of Computer-Evolved Digital Composition, constructs compositions that give us a glimpse of our future possibilities.
Creative Writing: What We Carry
This issue’s literary works explore the stories we inherit, the pain we process, and the pride we proclaim. Fiyola Hoosen-Steele’s short story The Wayward Ways of Lydia Hayworth dives into layered family history and racial politics in apartheid South Africa. Vernajh Pinder’s poem A Love That Once Was traces the emotional aftermath of love lost. And Sarpong Agyemang’s An Ode to a Black Queen and I Am Black honor Blackness as both legacy and light.
Core Conversations
Across interviews this season, one idea echoed again and again: the beginning matters. Each creative path seemed to hinge on a starting point—often quiet, sometimes chaotic, always defining.
Artists spoke about patience. About not rushing the process. About building a visual language over years, not days. They challenged the myth of overnight mastery, instead pointing to intuition, experimentation, and the long arc of growth.
We also noticed an undercurrent of tension: between spontaneity and structure, between what’s inherited and what’s invented. Identity wasn’t just represented in the art—it was wrestled with during the making.
And perhaps most striking: no one claimed to have the answers. Instead, they showed us what it looks like to keep asking better questions.
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