Vernon Reid performs "Artificial Afrika" at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday. (Bill Bernstein) On Saturday, artist Vernon Reid — perhaps best known as the former frontman of rock band Living Colour — comes to the National Portrait Gallery to perform “Artificial Afrika.” The multimedia work, sponsored by the National Museum of African Art, features Reid playing guitar against a backdrop of video art and animation.

The piece, according to the museum, is meant to explore “the West’s mythologized conceptions of African culture.” What can you expect if you go? I caught up with the artist this morning to get his perspective:

Tell me about your upcoming performance.

The basic idea is that Africa is a continent of the mind. It’s a continent with many different countries, but Africa is also a bunch of suppositions and it’s a notional place as well, from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” to Aunt Jemima. They’re kind of meant to be paintings that move, if you will.

Did you have to learn new skills for this?

Yes, it was a challenge. I learned some unusual software because I want [“Artificial Afrika”] to have it’s own kind of look and identity. 

What inspired it? Where did the idea originate?

It started with the phrase, “Artificial Afrika,” and I said, “I don’t know what that is, but it’s something.” Then I just started thinking about the representation of the continent, from newsreels to Mother Africa with her fist in the air. All these representations and misrepresentations, it was all a part of it. There’s also a way I always think I’m supposed to feel about the continent. And there’s post-colonial reality, but also Africa as an aesthetic reality.

What do you hope people will take away?

I hope that it intrigues them. I hope that it makes them think. It may seem like a bunch of squiggles and colors and not make sense, I don’t know. It’s meant to have an overall feeling. It’s almost more like abstract painting. Think more Ed Clark and Jackson Pollock than “Toy Story.” As I describe it, it’s an “Afrodelic experience.”

“Artificial Afrika” is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the McEvoy Auditorium in the National Portrait Gallery. A Q&A will follow the performance.