Art & Culture

Time Out: Your use of pesewa coins has become your artistic calling card of sorts. Were there any other materials that came as a close second? Yaw Owusu: At the beginning I mostly painted, but I have always been interested in the processes of transformation, and as such, started experimenting with reactions between other materials like aluminum and steel.   T O: The treatment the coins undergo to change colour is complex. Was it a period of trial and error to achieve your desired result, or did you sincerely have to learn some chemistry? Y.O: My encounter with these treatment outcomes was initially by chance – when some coins had contact with seawater during a project at the beach in Cape Coast. However, my little senior high school background in chemistry contributed enormously to the freedom to experiment with several elements and conditions, and I must admit I had no specific idea of what the reactions and activities could yield; I still don’t try to guess what might happen (even though some might be easily predictable). T O: How has Accra changed since you were a boy? Y.O: I grew up mostly in Kumasi as a kid, but I had the opportunity to see most of the other parts of the country. Accra, as the capital, always demonstrated the greatest change each time I revisited, due to the fact that most developmental projects and businesses’ head offices were centralised there. T O: To survive in Accra, one has to be somewhat savvy and entrepreneurial. What creative ideas have y

Past an A-Board that reads ‘Accra Redefined’ and up the wooden stairs of an old, somewhat ramshackle 1915 building in Usshertown, two buildings down from the Fort, is a space that is quietly changing lives. At the top of the stairs, the cooling breeze blows through the many wide open windows around the one-roomed gallery. Through the rear window, the Gulf of Guinea, blue and sparkling, darkens to azure on the horizon. Fishing boats bob in the water, a reminder of the industry that still powers the oldest part of Accra. Inside, an exhibition researched by historian Nat Amarteifio, charts the 450-year history of Jamestown: the slave forts, the heady late 1800s alive with department stores and music clubs, the decline of the area starting in the 1920s as the port moved east, the war, independence, and the challenges of 21st century West Africa… it’s a compelling story and one lived out by the residents today in Jamestown.  So what exactly is ArchiAfrika Design & Architecture Gallery? Its genesis was a dream, a philosophy, an idea of how design and architecture, if intelligently implemented, can make a real and lasting impression on the world, on a city, on a neighbourhood. Its chief patron and the driving force is architect Joe Addo who has worked across the world, including a 16-year spell in Los Angeles.  “I got involved with the advocacy of architecture; how we use architecture to get involved with the local community. There was very little discourse about this and I wanted

Ama Asantewa Diaka is the CEO of fashion brand, Alikoto Clothing, and greeting card company, Yobbings. She also heads up Love Rock, an NGO aiming to assist youth in becoming active members of their communities. However, it’s her spoken word poetry she’s most well known for. Going by the stage name Poetra Asantewa, she has performed at numerous national and international events in Accra, and is featured in Sandra Krampelhuber’s film “Accra Power”, which was screened at this year’s Chale Wote Street Art Festival.   Tash Morgan-Etty caught up with Poetra after the screening to find out more about her thoughts on the film, and how Accra influences her work. You were featured in “Accra Power” where the filmmaker used you as one of the film’s narrators. How did you get involved, and how do you feel about the outcome of the film? When Sandra came to Ghana last year she approached me and showed me her work “100% Dakar”, which documents artists in Dakar and their work. She said that when she got here she thought it would be a good idea to have a theme like “power” or “Dumsor”, and that was a strange coincidence because the theme for our performance last year was “power”. So, it kind of fused perfectly with what she wanted to do. I asked her about the artists in the film, because I wanted to be sure there was going to be a gender balance in the film. She said that there was a boxer, a dancer, etc. I was quite pleased that. And, so, we did a couple of shoots. I saw the final product

Is now the perfect time to invest in Ghanaian art? 

An inside look at Accra's iconic fantasy coffin art - as practised by the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop