Paa Joe coffin carver

One of the things that has been exposed to the world about Ghana is the amazing themed coffins that are made and sometimes used to bury people. These coffin themes usually correspond to to the profession or the life of the person it is for. A military man would be burried in a gun coffin, a pilot in an airplane coffin, a fisherman in a fish or boat coffin, a big man in a Mercedes, and so on.

One of the most well known coffin carvers currently is known as Paa Joe. His work has been showcased on many international media outlets including BBC.

Going back to 2017 I was fortunate enough to go to the exhibition launch of his work at Gallery 1957 at the Kempenski hotel. Gallery 1957 has a few gallery spaces in the hotel and the adjoining mall. They do a great job of showcasing quality artists from Ghana and sub-region. Usually when the launch an exhibition there is a bit of a party vibe, and lots of free drinks and finger foods. I try to make it whenever I could before Covid hit an I was still living in Accra.

All the above pictures are some very clear pictures of his work that I took in 2014 at a street art festival in Accra. Below I will show my experience in 2017 with the gallery exhibition launch. The photos taken at the gallery opening were from my camera phone at the time and they are not that great of qaulity so please forgive me this time.

The party started outside the mall even before entering with drumming and a troop doing traditional dancing.

Clearly they were moving way too fast for my camera to capture at night. Just a blur of activity literally.

Inside the uncompleted mall space was another drumming group.

This turned into a large interpretive dance. I think that this man was some sort of king. The story of the interpretive dance is a little blurry to me as I do not always put these things together well in my head.

Then came what I think are the water dancers.

Then a boat rowed by a young girl comes in carried by the water.

This procession led everyone into the gallery space.

Before we all entered the gallery space there was a final act outside with the introduction of the other head woman dancer.

Inside the gallery space was filled with undersea type coffins, fish and shells. I think that the representation is that the boat went under taking this girl to this underwater kingdom. The man an woman in red are the king and queen to this kingdom and there is some sort of internal struggle as what to do with this visitor.

Most of the coffins had more water dancers inside of them.

More dancing ensued I think to just set the stage for this underwater kingdom.

Eventually the queen takes the little girl on her back and carries here.

The little girl is returned to the boat and they seem to share a heart felt moment and maybe a good by.

The water continues to dance around. And eventually the story seems to end. I think that this was a way of mixing the fixed art of the coffins with performing art.

After the performance we were free to have a closer look at the coffins.

The level of detail is amazing and to think that they all have a space for a body to be and and buried in the ground.

Eventually Paa Joe enters and is available for questions. Everyone then networks, and I enjoy as much finger foods and glasses of wine I can get my hands on. I hope to get back for some more gallery openings soon.

Thanks for this little trip down picture memory lane.