ARTIST SPOTLIGHT : KWAKU OWUSU ACHIM
Kwaku Owusu Achim is a Ghanian born artist from Kwahu, an area in the eastern region connected with the Twi-speaking Akan; he creates sign-love-languages which he calls hand signs in his enigmatic works to express the push-and-pull of unity, familial love, intimacy and AfroDiasporic spiritual knowledge. His tenebrous backdrops electrify the signature blues, oranges, yellows and occasional greens of his artscapes to construct a mystic visual world in which he explores his learning about west African spiritual traditions, readings and conversations. Achim uses the body lines of his figures, a high-contrast color palette, and the sign-love-language system of his hand signs to create compositional balance and visual harmony in AfroSpiritual ArtScapes.
I was invited to visit Achim at Crescents Studio in Accra, where he works alongside artists Joshua Oheneba-Takyi, Clifford Bright-Abu, and Kwabena Lartey. During my visit he shared about a town in the eastern part of Ghana, called Adamrode, in which 20% of its population is deaf. In this town, those who are deaf must marry with hearing people by law; the motive of this law is that the population of deaf people would diminish over time.
Achim also shared that the people of this town believe in both hearing and deaf gods, and they know which type of god they are communicating with when the priests dance one beat, or off beat, during ceremonies.
The women in the piece below, untitled, are outwardly optimistic about having a hearing child, yet inwardly, they hope to have a deaf child because they feel that they are able to communicate with more intimacy and connection. Achim presents this posture of motherhood using his signature orange to highlight the spiritual openness of the women: hope - signaled in the praying hands, open-mindedness - represented by the red head, and warm reception of whatever child comes - signaled by the open hands, all of which are branches of the pregnant woman’s body. In deep brown, her hands rest comfortably on her stomach to emphasize the baby’s presence, while the orange creates a color-frame around the mothers body, as if to surround her in the prayers and gratitude that flow from her spiritual posture. With the two standing bodies Achim creates a dancing mood, to celebrate the gift of new life and reference the dancing, priestly mothers of Adamrode.
Achim was selected as part of the 2021 Noldor Artist Residency and has exhibited internationally over recent years, establishing himself as a rising star in Ghana’s international acclaimed art ecosystem. His self-made sign language system is informed by his studies at Mamprong Akropong SNR High School and his interest in human connection through sign language. To follow his journey and connect you can visit his Instagram.
