Where do I start with this piece? It has probably had one of the most eventful histories of any work I’ve made.

The painting originally began with a title inspired by a lyric from The Prodigy. The face itself has remained throughout, but over time it has been continually refined and improved. In many ways, the piece became a lesson in knowing when to stop — perhaps part of becoming an artist is recognising when a work has finally reached the point where it is complete.

Measuring an imposing 2m x 1.8m, the original substrate was constructed entirely from floppy disks. Following an accident at a picture framer, however, the upper section was damaged and had to be rebuilt. At the time, I no longer had enough matching floppy disks to recreate it exactly, so I decided to introduce circuit boards into the repaired section.

It was the first time I had combined two different technological materials within a single substrate, and the result completely changed the direction of the work. What began as a necessary repair became an unexpected development in my process, opening up the possibility of using multiple surfaces and materials together in future pieces.

Because the rebuilt circuit-board section sits predominantly across the hair, the work was ultimately renamed Afro Digital.

What started as an accident has become one of the defining characteristics of the finished piece — and potentially the beginning of a new approach to how I construct future works.