In episode four of our Art.See.Africa journey, we’re taking a stop in Ghana’s capital, Accra. It is home to a vibrant, contemporary art scene. Curator and author Nana Oforiatta Ayim shows us some hotspots.
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00:00Hi, I'm Nana Ofriat Ayim. I'm a writer, art historian and curator. Welcome, this is my
00:18city. We're here in the capital of my country, Ghana, and this is Black Star Square. This
00:46is where we celebrate the freedom and the independence of our country. And I'm here
00:50today to celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of our city. Accra is on the Atlantic Ocean
00:58on the west coast of Africa. Around 5 million people live in Accra, where there are many
01:07different kinds of industry, including fishing, manufacturing, finance, and transportation
01:15amongst many others. It is a vibrant city with much creativity. Ghana is made of several
01:30communities and kingdoms that are thousands of years old. Jamestown is one of the oldest
01:40areas of Accra and home of the Ga people. Trade began internally with the forest areas
01:47and then with those from outside, like the Portuguese, British, Dutch, Swedes and Danes.
01:55What began as friendly trade relationships quickly turned violent, especially with increasing
02:00horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. In our creative expression and production,
02:08we're still grappling with the legacies of imperialism, slavery, colonialism, nation-building,
02:15and what it means to make our futures. And this is what we'll see in the works of the
02:19artists that we'll meet today. Performance artist Elizabeth Efua Sutherland flies through
02:28her latest work that's coming up on Artsy Africa. And we'll meet carpenter and artist
02:37Paa Joe, whose coffins tell many stories. Painter Kofi Awuia takes a political stance
02:46with his canvases. We'll explore the art of Accra's streets with Kwesi Darko. And
02:57Afroscopes takes a sketching robotic arm to the Venice Biennale. So let's go and see
03:05some art in Accra. I'm now going to meet the exciting artist Kwesi Darko. Come with me.
03:27Hi Kwesi. Kwesi's studio is always a great place to visit. Every time I'm here, Kwesi's always
03:34creating something new. I'm excited to see his latest pieces, which involve him working on car
03:39doors. So tell me about this body of work that you're working on. This, the title of this project
03:47is One Way Vision. It takes inspiration from a lot of things. Amongst Kwesi's inspirations are
03:54the trotros, privately owned minibuses that service transportation across the country.
04:02The word tro comes from the Ga term for three pence,
04:05which was a bus fare when Ghana was still using the British West African pound.
04:15Trotros are often personalized with sayings and stickers, which are known as one way stickers.
04:21The name comes from a certain specific printing technique. I realized a lot of
04:26Ghanaian transport adopted this technique. And for me, I was curious about the fact that these
04:32people were curating images. Some talk about life, some have political undertones, social commentary.
04:40It's a way of people just expressing their opinions without even seeing the words out loud.
04:47There's art all around, even though we don't notice it.
04:51Kwesi is inspired by the creativity and ways of expression at work on the trotros,
04:57in a place where everything is art. To make One Way Vision, Kwesi spent time at the local
05:04trotro station, where he took photos and videos of all around him.
05:08You know, it's almost like seeing the street as an exhibition space. Exactly.
05:19Really exciting. And you said there's an AR aspect as well? Yes, I can show you.
05:25Kwesi has used augmented reality, or AR,
05:28to embed QR codes that link his videos and make them come to life.
05:38And so it's a way to get people moving through the space. And so I was like on the street and
05:43I saw somebody had written on their car, in Kabumawdo, which is community brings love.
05:49I love that you're bringing in technology to bring these kind of exhibition models to life.
05:55Do you want to be photographed? Let's see.
06:12He's also a great photographer, and we end our visit with a photo shoot near his home.
06:17And I love how your dress matches the patterns of everything around you. The green, the brown.
06:23Nice. Performance picture. Performer, exactly. I actually really like this. Thanks so much for
06:29coming. Nice to see you. Take care and I'll see you very soon.
06:39My journey with DW's Artsy Africa now takes me to the west of the city.
06:53If you're looking for somewhere to get objects here in our craft,
06:58the Arts Centre is the place to come.
07:17The Arts Centre has many different kinds of artworks, including carved wooden figures
07:21used in many different contexts. Funerals in Ghana are not only a time to mourn,
07:27but also to celebrate life and the person ascending to the world of the ancestors.
07:38In a place where everything is art, coffins are so too. Amongst the Ga, a tradition has emerged
07:45which is said to have been started by the carpenter Kani Kwe in the 1950s, where proverbs
07:50are made visible in coffins. This is the workshop of Pa Jo,
07:58who apprenticed with Kani Kwe before setting up on his own.
08:10What happens is, the deceased person may have a profession. Very often, it's what he is known to
08:16have done while he was alive. That is what the family does to honour their dead.
08:23This honour is then seen on the funeral procession grounds.
08:28Once the casket is lifted, everyone will know the kind of profession the deceased engaged in
08:33and it's befitting.
08:40This is for a fisherman. He loves this kind of fish,
08:43and he has requested that this casket be used to bury him when he dies.
08:48So, we have created it while he is still alive.
08:53This one is for an MD from the Coca-Cola bottling company.
08:59He has requested that this be created so that he can be buried in this very casket.
09:08We made this cockerel for some other clients, but it's not time for them to pick it up.
09:13They will use it for an important man. He hails from Nungwa, the oldest among the Ga tribes.
09:21All the lands here in Accra were granted to the Nungwa people.
09:27And this one is going to a client in America, in Los Angeles.
09:34This coffin was ordered by a client in America,
09:37who collects reptiles and heard about Pa Jo's creations.
09:44Funerals are hugely important in Ghana,
09:47because they mediate between the worlds of the living and the dead.
09:52This new Ga tradition of fantasy coffins, created in the forms of proverbs and aphorisms,
09:59of clan totems that take the forms of animals, of the professions and dreams of the deceased,
10:06carries on the semantic traditions of the Nungwa people.
10:11Carries on the semantic traditions and multi-layered textures of much of Ghanaian artistry.
10:18They are another sphere of language that communicates non-verbally.
10:35I seldom attend funerals of my clients,
10:38but once I attended one and I sat among the male elders.
10:42But I left immediately when the casket was lifted for burial.
10:45I didn't walk around to show off and for people to praise me for my work.
10:53That's not who I am.
11:03Pa Jo and his workshop, as well as those like him, are in high demand.
11:09And I'm grateful to them for being the ones to support me.
11:18Next on our Artsy Africa journey, I head to the north of Accra
11:21to meet an artist who has reclaimed forms that travelled outwards.
11:27I'm here at the BAX art studio about to meet with the artist Kofi Awiya.
11:33Hi Kofi, nice to meet you.
11:34Welcome to my space.
11:36work? I'm a fan of textured painting and I love abstracts. It took me eight years
11:41to master this technique. So in this technique, it's sort of a mixture of
11:46textured painting and mosaic combined together. You have three, four layers in
11:51the painting. It's a technique used by Van Gogh, Rembrandt. Nice. Thanks. So what is it
11:59that you want to express through your work? We have this police brutality, so it's
12:05sort of like the history or what happened to our sisters is still
12:10happening again. And I think I should address it and talk about it.
12:15I mounted an exhibition recently at 1957. Inside this five-star hotel, there is a
12:24commercial gallery, which is a relatively new addition to Accra's ecosystem of art
12:29spaces. I think I'm influenced by what I see in my country. Some months ago in
12:44Accra, we had this protest, Fix the Country campaign. People were tired of
12:49the hardship, the suffering, and then it was a massive protest. So I try as much
12:59as possible to tune in to watch the news daily, if possible.
13:08Currently, I'm using Cubism. I think it gives me that freedom to express
13:14myself without boundaries. I take Cubism as an African, and then I want to express
13:22myself in Cubism as an African.
13:32Art, I think, is for me to talk about history, talk about human existence. So
13:40for me, art is a gift that I will use to talk about what is happening in the
13:46society. A writer will use his pen, but I think my brush is my gift.
13:54Back in his studio, Kofi is getting his materials ready. He has invited me to
14:00create with him before I head off.
14:05Okay, so what are we doing? We're doing some paperwork. So we'll start with the
14:13charcoal? Yeah. What do you have in mind? I don't know, I might try a face. I just
14:20work straight from my mind. Oh my god, I haven't drawn for a long time.
14:28What's the difference between these and these crayons? Like, are some softer? This is
14:32pastel oil. So they're different effects? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna try this. Do you mix the
14:40mediums? Yeah, I mix them. I add charcoal. That's not bad.
14:47What are you doing? Drawing a child and a mother. Just trying things out. Anything
15:00going through your mind? Me, mostly I like painting with music. Oh really? Yeah.
15:06Nice. I think I like your choice of colors. Hmm. Are you gonna keep going with
15:12this? I think I'll use this as an inspiration for a painting. Wow. Wow.
15:20That's quite a journey. Okay, maybe next time we'll do it to some jazz. Okay, sure.
15:25Yeah? Okay, so I'll see you later. Okay, I'll be waiting then. So you're just about to meet
15:35Afroscope, who I chose for the Ghana Pavilion for the Venice Biennale. I'm
15:40excited for you to meet him and to see his work. Every second year, Venice hosts
15:46the Biennale, which is like the Olympics of the art world. In 2022, the Biennale
15:50featured artists from 58 countries.
15:55I called the exhibition at the Ghana Pavilion, Black Star, the Museum as
16:04Freedom. Afroscope's installation featured a robotic arm that he had
16:11trained to create drawings in his artistic style. I chose his work for the
16:15Ghana Pavilion because of how he uses technology to explore freedom of
16:20expression and of being. Afroscope's work is futuristic but also inward and
16:26backward-looking, drawing on our historical knowledge systems and
16:30philosophies to create future worlds. He lives in Tema, a community about an hour
16:38outside of Accra.
16:42My name is Nana Opoku. I create art under the pseudonym Afroscope. A lot of my
16:49work is intuitive, very experimental and very spontaneous. I started off with
16:56drawing and graduated to like ink drawings on paper. Afroscope now spends
17:01most of his time creating in the digital sphere.
17:07There's so much knowledge systems, mythologies, cosmologies that for various
17:14reasons we aren't taught in school, they've been wiped out, they've been
17:17whitewashed. And doing that research, a bit of archaeological digging to find
17:22out what are the things that our forebears and forefathers left for us.
17:26And so I find ways to now communicate what I'm learning with to others.
17:30Afroscope has started creating with tools like virtual reality. These are
17:35some of his 3D VR images which you can see in full expression with these kinds
17:40of headsets. Which option you want to select?
17:48There's also this concept I'm fascinated by which is oneness. The genesis of all
18:02this was in the illustrations that I do, that I have called or I dub Ashe. Ashe
18:08is a Yoruba term for that ethereal or invisible life force that connects
18:14everything and that makes everything alive. So at Venice I'm trying to tell a
18:19story that talks about this journey from Ashe to now. I did a 1024 of these
18:26drawings that I've scanned and run through a machine learning algorithm. So
18:33I'm trying to create an experience that touches on these things and ask
18:36questions about whether or not computers can also be seen as artists. Can we say a
18:42computer has spiritual intelligence?
18:55Art can help us see things that are not immediately apparent. Putting together an
19:01exhibition can feel like alchemy, like creating something where the whole is
19:06greater than the sum of its parts.
19:10So I love this work, this building of narratives. So whenever I do an
19:16exhibition even I'm astounded at the end of it. Like this exhibition for example
19:22when I looked at this book it says Ghana's historic first pavilion at the
19:25Venice Biennale of 2019. When I curated Ghana's first ever pavilion for the
19:33Venice Biennale in 2019, Ghana Freedom, it referred to our first president
19:38Kwame Nkrumah famously saying, Ghana our beloved country is free forever. And how
19:46that freedom has or hasn't developed for us through the eyes and work of our
19:50greatest artists. There's something about the impact that an exhibition can have.
19:57There's something about the space for experimentation to create new forms and
20:02new languages and to put different works and different artists together and
20:08come out of it expanded in some way.
20:26I come to places like this, the Artists' Alliance Gallery here in Labadi for
20:30inspiration and for research.
20:35Labadi has a beach right in the centre of town where the Artists' Alliance
20:42Gallery sits. It was created by veteran artist Professor Abla Di Glova and
20:46showcases both historical and modern art. I became an art historian and started to
20:53curate because I wanted to help frame some of the rich and multi-layered
20:57culture that we have in this country.
21:08My Artsy Africa journey now takes me east. This is where I encounter
21:15performance artist Elizabeth Sutherland.
21:28Elizabeth's choreography comes from all the things she sees, hears and feels
21:33around her.
21:48I think we Africans, we default to dance. You know, when people feel joy, they feel
21:53sadness. When we just even express in normal, everyday language, we're very
21:57physical about it.
22:15The piece is called Weaving in the Wild. It involves aerial silks, dance,
22:21theatre and a little bit of physical theatre. And it explores the textile
22:26tradition of Ghana.
22:29Elizabeth will travel and perform Weaving in the Wild in communities in
22:34the Volta region of Ghana.
22:37So this would be shown to people who are actually taking part in weaving
22:41culture and see how the people doing that type of work connect to this
22:47performance.
23:02We have appropriate attire for different types of events.
23:07There's a funeral, there are different types of cloth that you wear.
23:17I would really like the work to connect to young people. I think we are all very
23:32interested in our culture and so I would like it to be a connecting point for
23:36young people to their tradition, to their culture.
23:40It is mostly men that weave kente cloth and Elizabeth is interrogating this by
23:45inserting her embodied practice within this tradition.
23:56The artists we've seen in Accra are each grappling with what it is to be human,
24:01to be Ghanaian today, as they engage with our past,
24:05present and future. As a writer, these are things that concern me too.
24:12Before the day ends, it's time for a last visit to the studio of Kofi Awuia.
24:37Hi, what have we got here?
24:39So I managed to turn this into an actual painting as an inspiration.
24:45Great, all in a day?
24:46Yeah.
24:47Very impressive. And it's a mother and child?
24:50Yeah, the same thing.
24:52Nice. Well done on all your work.
24:56As my journey comes to an end, I head for the place that, for better or worse,
25:09connects us with the rest of the world, the sea.
25:13This has been DW's Artsy Africa, showing you some of Accra's exciting art scenes.