This extract is taken from a transcript of an interview between Sonia Boyce and Emma Dexter

SB: And the Tarzan figure - drawn and then painted over with whites and pinks - is almost invisible, but the title suggests that Tarzan is the main figure. And at the time - not just at the time of making this piece but when I was a child - I was always puzzled by Tarzan - as to why he would want to be there - it seemed like this was a choice that he had made - that he would go and live in the jungle and live with these animals and that he would become lord of that environment. And I suppose since making this piece, I've realized that he is this kind of mythic white figure and in some way, if one looks at those 1930's and 1940's films which invoke the jungle, that he usurps what he believes to be the mythic qualities of the black male - being infused in some way with the beastly and being the king of the animal kingdom.

ED: Because you could see Tarzan, in quite a stereotyped reading, as you say, as a mythic figure representing colonialist impulses and the contradictions that that also implies, because of the desire to control, dominate and master but at the same time, as well, tacit acknowledgment of the exotic, of all sorts of projected ideas about libido and other kinds of black mastery as well. Can you talk more about how you actually present the image of Tarzan - why is he being very faint, painted out?

SB: I think, because I couldn't quite figure how he fitted in? I mean what it actually consisted of, in terms of the making of it, was drawing him in and then painting over - and as I painted to try and fill him in, he became washed out in the process. I've since thought about this in relation to some of the things that Richard Dyer has talked about, in terms of whiteness being everything and nothing. As an idea, it can be almost like an ethereal gas that doesn't evaporate but is everywhere in some way, even though in the Tarzan films, his physicality is very present. And, I think, I had quite a struggle with him, as a figure in this piece - in relation to the repeated black female.

ED: So is there an element of finding that, as you were trying to draw him in, you started actually thinking "No I can't do this." Then there's also the fact of the white male - certainly at the time that you were making this and also the cinematic time that the piece refers to - being so dominant and prevalent. Why does he even need to be seen because we know that he's there all the time so why should he be given this sort extra bit of promotion?

SB: But the piece hinges on the title itself - hinges on his presence but not necessarily his visibility, in a way. And so he had to be there but yes, I was struggling with how, physically, he appeared there. And in fact that was the only bit of making of the piece that was a struggle. I suppose in a way, I was trying to think about the relationship between the black female within those films and also within the question of the presentation medium. Because there are points in the first set of images of her - I mean it's repeated - where she almost disappears as well and then she becomes much stronger and more visible, as an image, in the second stage. But I think that this kind of struggle that I had was all in relation to Tarzan - in terms of their relationship to each other, within the same frame.