Courtesy of the artist
Storm Ascher: I noticed your style has changed a bit recently, can you talk about that change and whether it was deliberate or happenstance?
Ludovic Nkoth: I would definitely say it was deliberate, the work started changing a bit after a trip I took back home to Cameroon. After leaving Cameroon at the age of 13, I spent 11 years in the states before returning to Cameroon so this trip allowed me to reconnect with my roots and some memories I left back home. When I came back after that trip I wanted every piece I created to feel like that same connection I felt when I was home so I started questioning every move I made with my brushes and this led to different ways of making.
Storm Ascher: Do you consider yourself prolific?
Ludovic Nkoth: I do, I treat my practice as an athlete treats their sport. Meaning if you are not training you are allowing yourself to remain stagnant resulting in losing your touch. So I paint or create everyday when ever I can, firstly because I enjoy what I do and secondly because repetition is key.
Storm Ascher: What makes a successful and finished painting?
Ludovic Nkoth: I think the idea of creating a “successful” painting is something a lot of artists struggle with. Because I always ask myself and my peers what is a successful painting? The closest I’ve reached to an answer is, a painting that starts a conversation. And I know a painting is finished when I feel that the next move would not add much to the piece.
Storm Ascher: What is your favorite color palette?
Ludovic Nkoth: I honestly have too many to mention. I just love playing with color butttt anything with yellow have my name on it haha.
Storm Ascher: Have you worked in oil paint? Why do you choose to use acrylic?
Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I have in the past. I have so many reasons, I love that my acrylic paint isn’t trying to kill me slowly and I love the drying speed and the fact that it dries into a plastic form.
Money Grows on Trees, 2020 Ludovic Nkoth
Storm Ascher: I remember one of the works we showed of yours at Superposition had corn meal mixed in the paint, (Money Grows on Trees) can you expand on why you made that choice?
Ludovic Nkoth: There’s actually a funny story behind that but I'll tell you the short version. Haha so I went down south during the holidays to visit my family and I had the urge to paint by day 3 of my stay. I set up a quick studio with whatever I could find around the house, while painting I needed something to make my paint slightly thicker and all I could find in my moms kitchen was corn meal. After that I started thinking of how we have corn growing on every single corner of Cameroon. Corn could grow out of concrete there, I promise, and I remembered how corn was such a huge part of my diet when I was there and how that same corn is being used around the would and the connection the diaspora has with it. These are some of the reasons I started using it.
Storm Ascher: I felt it was a very innovative and powerful choice to include the green card identification numbers in the paintings of your family members, did you feel at all hesitant given privacy and the threat to immigrant communities (ICE)?
Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I did and my father advised me against it, but that made me want to use it even more. The way I looked at it was we immigrants with green cards are identified by numbers in a system and that seemed a bit dehumanizing and this has happened in history before our time and I think it's a good starting point for that conversation and I would like to continue pushing that forward.
Storm Ascher: Do you use Cameroonian influences in your paintings?
Ludovic Nkoth: Yes I think the biggest influences is in my use of color. The colors I grew up around were so rich in knowledge and coded in meaning if that makes any sense. Most tribes had and still have specific colors that separates them from other tribes. And within those tribes more colors are used to acknowledge social status.
Storm Ascher: What was it like to relocate your studio practice from NY to SC for quarantine? Are you used to moving around?
Ludovic Nkoth: I’m used to moving around but moving around due to an epidemic is a different story. First I had to drive because the airports were slowly shutting down and the lines were up to a 6 hour long wait. Relocating this time made me focus more on my physical health and mental health, I slowed down a lot with my work and started doing more to stay healthy during these times. This time painting at my family’s home down south feels different and I am still trying to figure it out day by day.
Storm Ascher: What does “nomad” mean to you?
Ludovic Nkoth: Hmmm. I would say to me a nomad is someone moving from place to place in search for a home. Due to the fact that I’ve relocated to a different country to be with a different family (father's side of the family) I now question the idea of what a home means and what makes a home. This is what plays in the displacement of bodies in my practice.