PAA JOE’S FANTASY COFFINS IN NEW YORK

By Nii B. Andrews

Paa Joe’s fantasy coffins (aka abebuu adekai) took off from where his uncle and mentor, the legendary Kane Kwei left off.

The coffins have a struck a chord with people all over the world- Jimmy Carter purchased two of them.

Paa Joe’s designs encompass objects ranging from cigarette boxes, cars, vegetables and mobile phones.

In 2004, Claude Simard, the late co-founder of the Jack Shainman Gallery located in Manhattan, New York, commissioned 13 funerary caskets with an innovative design from Paa Joe.

They were to be made in the form of the slave forts strung along Ghana’s coastline and erected by European nations starting from the 15th century.

UNTITLED: Paa Joe, mixed media, 2015-17. Courtesy of the Artists’ Alliance Gallery, La, Accra.

Out of the 13 that were commissioned, a total of 4 are being exhibited in New York in the show, “The coffins of Paa Joe and the pursuit of happiness”.

One coffin was at the Chelsea (24th St) location and the other three were shown at the School (Kinderhook NY).

UNTITLED: Paa Joe, multi-media, 2004-5. Courtesy of the Jack Shainman Gallery.

The exhibition is currently continuing at only the Kinderhook location; it closes on Aug 31st.

Paa Joe’s rendition of the slave forts’ ghoulish edifices in miniature forcibly remind us that they were indeed sites of the deaths (physical, moral and spiritual) of the captives, their captors and custodians.

To render them as coffins squares the circle even as we continue to struggle today with the effects of that ignominy.

Paa Joe has honored the memory of the innocent captives in the true tradition of “abebuu adekai”.

UNTITLED: Paa Joe, mixed media, 2015- 17. Courtesy of the Artists’ Alliance Gallery, La, Accra.

 

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