Aida Amoako is an arts and culture writer based in London who is known for her careful and critical analysis of a variety of subjects. Her interests range from the history of the color yellow to the influence of hardboiled crime and noir on Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” as well as how our collective imagination is constructed through art, media, and technology.
In her book “As We See It: Artists Redefining Black Identity,” published by Laurence King, Amoako offers a refreshingly expansive reflection on the Black visual renaissance of late. The book features 30 image-makers, including Kenny Germé, Campbell Addy, Girma Berta, Sedrick Chisom, Nadine Ijwere, Ronan McKenzie, and Lina Iris Viktor, who use fashion and fantasy to reinterpret and subvert negative depictions of Blackness.
Amoako draws inspiration from recent publications that investigate the complex relationship between the circulation of images, Black identity, and performance, and she aims to broaden perspectives and look at blackness with all its multiplicity. These emerging artists pay homage to their artistic elders, but they are not beholden to them. They embody the idea of Blackness always being in flux, and they use the prefix “re” to reimagine, reconsider, reconceptualize, reread, and rework the idea of Blackness. The book’s works feel like provocations, places to begin, not end, and portals to imagination and possibility.
Cody is the Editor in Chief and senior contributor at liminul.
He is a photography aficionado, fashion enthusiast, avid Lana Del Rey fan, and lover of all things aesthetically pleasing.
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