Art Worlds in Ghana

The site’s been ready for ages, www.wizkudowor.com, but I finally got some technical glitches sorted (thanks to Jenn and Sebastianna from Haverford’s Communications for help along the way).

Now feast your eyes. Wiz paints ephemeral faces, figures, and abstract shapes with just a foam roller and palette knife to sharpen the edges. Look closely and you’ll see layer upon layer reveal itself. Enjoy.

And while you’re at it, take a look back at Larry’s site (my Ghanaian dad), www.larryotoo.com. His vibrant, abstract paintings capture the rhythm and beat of daily life in Ghana, from sassy market ladies to slick jazz scenes to compositions of adinkra fertility symbols. Larry is known for his use of color, but recently he’s been painting in gray palettes with streaks of gold or bronze. Like his Facebook page, will ya? With seven more fans he can be a real “celeb.”

www.larryotoo.com, check it out. It’s been up for some time now, sorry I didn’t post you earlier. Thanks to the fabulous Sebastianna in Haverford’s Communications for technical help.

And happy yesterday birthday to Wiz!

P.S. I’m taking a Twi class at Penn (the most widespread local language in Ghana). Today I finally understood an interaction I had one day with one of the pure water sellers at Nungua while waiting for the tro-tro. I was eating a piece of corn, and she kept calling me something like “mommy” or “mami.” Everyone crowded around laughing, and I was just confused. Well, today I realized that she wasn’t calling me her mom. She was saying “Ma me!” (Give me)

Hey out there.

Well I’m back to Ghana again this summer, doing related but slightly different work. I’m in the process of changing the blog title to reflect the new theme, from “Junior Art Club in Accra, Ghana” (the organization where I worked last summer) to “Art Worlds in Ghana.”

There are two parts to this project: one, helping artists to archive their work and establish websites; and two, organizing an art project in a public space between the artists and local students, in collaboration with the Junior Art Club (JAC). I’m staying with the artist Larry Otoo, and I’ll also be working with Wiz Kudowor, Serge Attukwei Clottey, and Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya. Or at least that’s the idea… It’s Ghana, so who knows what will happen. Last summer I ended up doing very different things from what I expected (thought I’d be doing film, media and journalism work, but ending up doing more theater, creative writing, networking, etc.). It worked out great, but I have to recognize that there’s only so much I can plan for.

This time I’ll be based in the capital, Accra, rather than splitting my time between there and Ada Foah, a coastal village just outside the city. But I’ll still go back to Ada to visit my Ghanaian fam, don’t worry Kofi, Gladys, Euphemia, Alfred.

Here's a reminder of who Larry is

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You should come.

Haverford College calendar entry

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Outside the Artists Alliance

I met with the artists for selfish reasons, because I wanted to, because it was amazing to meet these creative people and see their work. Still, I used the opportunity to set up contacts for the JAC and ask the artists if they could help us out on our upcoming projects. Many of them said they would be happy to come work with the kids for a session – to teach them about art, and for the kids to see what it is like to be a professional artist. When we have an auction with the children’s work, it will help to be able to say that, say, Larry Otoo was involved.

It was these artists and institutions that gave me hope about the art world in Ghana. The art I saw was so vibrant and beautiful, so clearly full of talent, that it made me wonder why we don’t have more contemporary Ghanaian and African art in our museums and institutions. We have plenty of old carvings and artifacts, but where are the Larry Otoos and Kofi Setordji’s inside the MOMA or Metropolitan walls? Not to mention the African museum walls?

The artists I met with told me I have to advocate them when I go home, not realizing that just because I am American does not mean I have any real influence. I will do what I can to spread awareness of Ghanaian art in my small world, and maybe it will reach some big ears. I can hope.

I just read Holland Cotter’s review of the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers in New Jersey, which is one of only three African museums in the country. Cotter is exuberant about the wooden carvings and masks, but rightfully points out that there is more to African art than this, even though it’s what we usually see in museums — there is also metalwork, and guess what, gold-weights too!

I could not help from shaking my head as I read the words. Where are the Ablade Glovers, the Wiz Kudowors? What about all the contemporary art and painting in Africa, where’s that? I plan on writing to the SFA to see what they think of my buddies over in Ghana.