Meet Fahamu Pecou | Artist, Scholar, Curator, Founding Director of the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta (ADAMA)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fahamu Pecou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fahamu, how do you think about risk?
I once heard a saying that says; ‘Your dreams are on the other side of your fears”.

This resonated with me. Any victory or triumph over a challenging situation has been a direct result of confronting my fears and taking risks others have been too intimidated to attempt. After all, while it can be scary, a risk is simply resistance. Resistance is overcome by persistence.

As an artist, this lesson is essential. Every time I approach a canvas I am taking a series of calculated risks. You start with a blank slate but have to convince yourself to see on this physical structure, something that only (for the moment) exists in your mind. Even choosing to be an artist as your career requires a healthy dose of a combination of both courage and delusion. Here again, you are working to convince yourself and others that you can do and or make things that do not yet exist.

But therein lies the true magic of taking those risks… nothing exists, until it does.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My most recent work is a series called “The End of Safety”. This project (like much of my work) has been both practice and therapy. The series interrogates and challenges the “comforts of knowing”. So much of how we understand ourselves comes from social cues and constructs that others have imposed on us. As such, despite the sometimes conflicting nature of these ideas and mores, we cling to this knowledge because we find comfort and by extension safety in following the rules. But what happens if we lift the veil of knowing and venture into the uncharted spaces? What happens when we question what we’ve been taught? Who are we beyond what we have been told?

It has been a series of questions that have shaped my art practice but also who I am and am becoming. The journey to where I am currently has not been easy, but certainly a worthy adventure. Along the way I’ve learned that the unknown is much more vast than the known, and that enlightenment comes not so much having the answers as it is figuring out what questions to ask.

This is the work that I do. Posing questions, stoking dialogue, peeling away at layers. As James Baldwin said, “Art should disturb the comforted and comfort the disturbed”.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Atlanta is a constantly evolving metropolis. The rate of growth and change makes me feel like a tourist in my own city. My itinerary with a friend visiting the area would literally just be to explore. With no real destination or expectation, I believe you get a deeper appreciation for Atlanta’s constant evolving.

For every day of the week I would pick a different point in the city to explore.

Day 1: Southwest Atlanta
Day 2: North Atlanta (Buckhead, Vinings, etc)
Day 3: East side (Decatur, Clarkston, etc)
Day 4: Midtown
Day 5: East Point, College Park

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Dr. Arturo Lindsay

Website: www.fahamupecouart.com

Instagram: @fahamupecou, @studiokawo

Linkedin: @FahamuPecou

Twitter: @fptheshit