Derek Fordjour

Center for Court Innovation - Art vs. Mass Incarceration

• "I think the power of Reset, by using art, is to reclaim that humanity, that agency. As you were talking I thought about my son's grandmother—I have a 21-year-old son—and I think about him a lot in this work. I worked with a lot of young people. And his grandmother said something to me the other day. Of course, we're like, “he's a kid. He's screwing up,” and I'm complaining, and she says, “Well, at least my grandson is not in jail.” And something about that relating him to the possibility of an arrest. This is a kid who's never had any trouble, but because of what he looks like she understands that he could very easily be in jail. But there is something in criminalizing him that I found problematic. This is something that he inherits, right?"

The Undefeated - The portrait of an artist: Derek Fordjour dissects race, sports and culture

• “We want fairness,” he said. “Societal fairness. Growing up, I heard in a speech once — ‘If I have to run 10 yards for a first down and you have to run three, it don’t matter how hard I play.’ Some of my work is about that inequality. That’s what it comes down to. If you look at health care, if you look at the history of housing, if you look at the history of banking, if you look at education, the disparities across all … are a lot greater than we realize. I’m interested in those ideas of fairness.”

On View - How Artist Derek Fordjour Turned Cardboard and Newspaper Into a Carnival Funhouse

• "The reason I work this way or why I’m drawn to this kind of surface is a lot about my experiences with used things or worn things. So my parents are Ghanaian and when we were kids they would send our used clothes to Africa. We would get pictures back of our cousins wearing clothes we had 10 years ago, but they would be fresh, restyled as if they got the newest. Seeing an old thing become new again, the dignity of that, that’s one layer. Also, I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where there was a lot of white flight. There would be these white neighborhoods, and then black families would move in, and then the white families would move out. I’m really attracted to that notion of our institutions and our homes having that kind of used, worn, quality but still trying to have dignity about it, and make it something new. That kind of wear and tear, that’s kind of what it’s about."

Pen’s Eye: Interview with Artist Derek Fordjour

• "I want to make pieces that people have an emotional and authentic connection to."

• "Sculpting took me into the realm of the unknown and I feel that made me improve as a painter. But overall, I primarily do painting, sculpting, drawing, and printmaking."