By Nii B. Andrews
Kati Torda has an upcoming exciting solo exhibition in which she displays her renowned virtuosity with beads by creating fresh enigmatic mixed media bead paintings/ installations.
The exhibition opens tomorrow in Ussher Town.
After living in Ghana for almost 40 years during which she has consistently produced a startling oeuvre of bead jewelry – worn by confident and chic ladies worldwide, Torda now takes on a new challenge with gusto.
She expresses relevant poignant viewpoints on current social issues, culture and historical events with her beadscape art pieces.
Thus the pieces, while being of a high aesthetic quality, also invite deep reflection and even robust debate.
Hear her on the charismatic wave/tsunami that has engulfed our nation; the art piece is entitled THE CHARISMATICS.
“The age of Aquarius turned toxic, aggressive…demanding charismatic, all night prayers bombard the sky……..promising solutions for the right fee.
The sun shrunk, black and red, colors of mourning dominate the sky”.
And both visually and conceptually, the piece accurately delivers her thoughts in an indelible manner.
Whether we agree with her or not is another matter.
In THE CHIEF IS PRESENT, the composition tells us that a chief’s power is only temporally and spatially relevant and limited; it only exists under the great arc of heaven.
Torda in a rare emotive moment has confessed that as time went on, she used less and less string with her bead jewelry.
The beads indeed took over her jewelry and have finally taken over her life; her whatsapp avatar says, “Beading….therefore I am”.
In DAY DREAMING ON THE RIVER NIGER, the beads appear as huge ominous boulders with the canoe (carrying humans and livestock) perched precariously on them.
Here is Torda delivering a stark warning and simultaneous lament about the degradation of our local water bodies as we sleep walk into Armageddon?
It is interesting that other locales in the piece appear to be thriving and pristine- surrounded by clear beads.
“Na who cause am?” and “Whetin we go do now?”
Torda informs us that beads are now the primary medium for her to communicate her ideas, impressions, convictions, feelings and indeed all that she deems or considers worth transmitting to posterity.
She has chosen an excellent medium as beads do last millenia.
This solo exhibition, “WHISPERS OF THE BEADS”, shows that she has ideas and viewpoints that are worth communicating and she does so with great artistic skill…..and certainly not at all in a whisper!
Avid collectors of contemporary African art have already taken notice and are adding these new pieces to their portfolios.
