Like memory, Quarm’s portraits are fragmented, partial and, at times, erased. His personal history, growing up in postcolonial Ghana before migrating to the US, prompted a deep investigation of cultural hybrids and how location can simultaneously expand and dilute identity. Identifying his practice as “cultural archaeology,” he explores the intricacies of selfhood and how it relates to time and space. As such, the figures Quarm paints and the fabrics he collages symbolise the folded layers of multiple cultures – each element its own vessel of history.