Tomatoes
are part of the deadly nightshade family, poisonous to some but play a
big role in Ghanaian domestic life as there is a market dedicated to the
red fruit. The fish is the symbol for Christianity. The colours on the
girl's face could refer to the Lebanese/Chinese/Indian invasion of
Africa and the way in which the Continent is having to come to terms
with becoming more culturally diverse. The mathematics or science, in
the background, doesn't necessarily always add up. The lines repeated on
the blackboard are a form of punishment in a borrowed language of a
Colonial past. The Fish and tomato Trader in Class again? I like this
work immensely as it's multi-layered and has real depth. The dominant
use of the colour blue could suggest the idea of being all at sea...i.e.
adrift or lost in a made up world without roots.
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| Tomato Market | Accra Ghana |
The series of works encourage thoughts about the African conditioned snobbery of education and the acceptance of the elitist
societies. Change comes about via rebellion and thinking organically
without the aid of global support. The community makes the change but
the artist must engage the society in order for permanent change to have
everlasting effect. So let us look at this and your other works again.
What is meant by all of this? Education = Mental States of Africans
(Ghanaians) | Food = Wealth and as we can, da 5 aday it no dere so let
us ask ourselves, who is benefiting from the education, who is able to
be educated and who is doing the educating? These are the rainbow
questions the artist is talking about. The African (Ghanaian) all but
disappears when placed in a CLASSROOM; full of high class, middle class
and the under class. Who benefits from the wealth of Africa (Ghana)
everybody but the Africans (Ghanaians) so again they become invisible
and so the Africa (Ghanaian) is no longer in the picture at all.
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| Nyornuwofia Agorsor | Artist from Accra, Ghana |
Here are some images of works within the series:
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