Kwabena Appiah-Nti

Golden boy, Garçon et cheval

In Golden boy, photographer Kwabena Appiah-Nti portrays black boys and young men around the world in everyday situations. The series, which aims to challenge the narrow and negative image of young black men in the media, explores themes such as youth, adolescence, blackness and representation. In the most recent additions to Golden boy, Appiah-nti uses new media for his images which symbolically refer to the content of his work. For example, he printed his photos on glass and stone. In 2024, he came to the TextielLab to turn one of his images into a soft woven tapestry.

With product developer Lotte van Dijk, he converted a black-and-white photo of a boy with a horse into a fabric. The materials were carefully chosen based on their appearance: a thin, shiny Elirex was used for the boy’s skin, a thick black bouclé yarn for his hair, loosely woven mohair for the horse’s coat and floats – which were later cut loose – for the mane. The tapestry was shown in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk museum in the exhibition ‘Circulate – photography beyond frames’.

Instagram

Photos by Peter Tijhuis