Then I gather that oral tradition is a pretty big thing for you. How has that been passed down through your family and manifested in your work?
I am currently in a traveling museum show called Radical Presence: The History of Black Performance, which was curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver. I chose to re-stage a performance I originated in 1998 where I dressed as a Mound, ate Jell-O, and farted balloons… it was crazy and fun. It had been more than 15 years since I activated this performance, and my thoughts about it had changed dramatically. For the current show, I decided to augment the design of the performance, both adding and subtracting elements. This time, after I ate the Jell-O, instead of the balloons coming out, I actually sang a hymn that I learned in church. The performance itself is about oral tradition, and for me, it's a way to maintain a connection with the people who taught me. My grandma and my stepfather were the keepers of that sacred knowledge. Now that they are no longer living, I am one of the keepers of this knowledge. Merging my artistic concerns so transparently with my religious past felt almost sacrilegious and was unsettling for me. It ended up being a very serious and confrontational performance.

Do you think there are any aspects of your work that are distinctly Texan or specifically referential to where you grew up, live and work now, in Houston, that might be lost on people who are not familiar with the culture?
I think there’s something inherently Texan in my work or maybe the South in general—the folk narratives, oral traditions, issues of religion, specifically Christianity. I’d say a lot of Southern artists have to navigate through that. It’s part of my work, and I’d say it’s probably something I’m never quite going to figure out. I don’t know that anyone can truly figure those spiritual things out. Traditionally, Texans hold two institutions in high regard: church and football. There’s a kind of fanaticism that crosses over between the two arenas, where people tend to loosen their minds, bodies and spirits. I grew up in church, and I grew up playing football. I understand those structures, and maybe I help bring some of that to the art world. There’s a kind of passion that I’m interested in: I take the things that I think are usable and good about those ways of living, and hopefully, you can see that evidence in how I run my studio.