Whitehot Magazine

March 2009, In Conversation with Kofi Fosu Forson, Part II

 

Aimee
 
 
Noah Becker in Conversation with Kofi Fosu Forson: 
MUSES Part 2 

Kofi Fosu Forson: You recently called me the Jean-Michel Basquiat of the literary world comparing me to Jimi Hendrix and James Baldwin. Do you think it’s possible for the re-emergence of a Jean-Michel Basquiat?  

Noah Becker: The way in which you address the world Kofi… It's Basquiatian, Baldwinian, Hendrixian. You can be Jean-Michel Forson and I'll be Gerhard Becker. Oh I know, I can be Noah Warhol and you are now called Kofi Rauschenberg. See what I mean? What kind of person would that new Jean-Michel be? 

KFF: He would be more of a threat than before. He was what Rob Zombie called More Human Than The Human. Perhaps I will shock the quasi literary world which posts the African as politically literary, sexual mammoth, stuck somewhere between white dynamics and black hip-hop. (Sigh) How do you define Noah Becker?  
NB: They say false prophets always speak of their greatness, so I'm hesitant to start assuming my role here via this art magazine. (Sigh) You are a modern day Basquiat, Warhol, Hendrix, Baldwin. These are the kind of people I like to work with.  
 
KFF: Basquiat left behind a world of clones. Walking the streets of Post Neo-Expressionist New York there were thousands of black men who particularly stole the Basquiat show, Italian suits and slacks, braided hair, sensitivity of a poet and painter. If at all Rimbaud was the original Basquiat. To survive as Kofi Fosu Forson I better stick to the sexual philosophy and reinterpretation of the muse. The standardized relationship between the artist and muse as of now can best be described as pimp and prostitute. This isn't your mother's Georgia Okeefe and Alfred Stieglitz. Ike and Tina more like it. 
 

 
 Christine
 

 

NB: Or Chris Brown and Rihanna? 
KFF: Language is now a form of aggression as the meaning of love has taken on a sense of enlightened distastefulness. Virtually I have come to a conclusion where I articulate and shape language with a variety of women. Foremostly Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, curator and performance artist and I have had a professional relationship for five years. This can be best described as a courtship on language and philosophy. Our mutual projects inlude Enlightenment Cushion Belles… It combined my poetry and philosophy with a performance by Gaynor and Liz Heritage. The two models proceed to strip and paint my poetry on their nude bodies. Laura Conde, Mexican painter and writer has entered my virtual horizon with contentment as my muse and lover. Her work tackles the isolation of sexuality in both innocence and experience. I hope to promote in the future a balance of communication and muse and mentorship as with my connection with Nancy Kaur, a blogger from New Zealand who writes brilliantly on the nature of film, literature and fashion. Tracy Hunter an artist from Manchester, England has been able to set as an example a human relationship within virtual reality. Otherwise the artist and muse has become what is “Chris Brown and Rhianna.”  
NB: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, that's another great woman you have introduced us to. Tell us a bit more about her. That's a wonderful name "Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney". 
KFF: Gaynor and I began a discourse on lineage, hybridity and philosophy. Ours is at times personal, phone conversations and email but mostly I have been a muse to her curatorship and she my muse to the development of my blog Black Cocteau. (Sigh) Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney as a muse is exquisitely complicated. She is at first the most beautiful woman you would ever want to meet but as an aside you wouldn't be able to meet her on your terms. She is an intellectual machine. Without knowing her you would still feel her breath of beauty. To then lay eyes on her you are struck. Many women are beautiful and I have come across beautiful women as one sees in the adorning photographs. Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, a former model, isn't trapped in the notion of the blue eyed blonde. She is a brunette with a body best described as sculpted. This very body she uses in what she calls her interventions which are primarily studied acts of spontaneous art brought about unexpectedly in a certain place and time. Gaynor has done these interventions all over the world, the Museum of Modern Art included. I love Gaynor. She is a friend. Most importantly she and I are conspirators in art and language. 

NB: Thank you Kofi.
 
 

 

 (c) Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, The Temple Series (2006) (Live Art / Digital Video), Liverpool Biennial 2006, Liverpool (UK)m 2006.

 

(c) Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, The Enlightenment - Les Cushion Belles (Live Art), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (UK) 2004

Editor-in-Chief: Noah Becker


Noah Becker is founder and editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, a visual artist, jazz musician and writer.
Web: www.noahbeckerart.com       
email: noah@whitehotmagazine.com
 


 

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