GHANA STUDIES / Volumes 12–13 ISSN 1536-5514 / E-ISSN 2333-7168© 2011 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 263 “STILL 2 TROUBLE(S) ONE GOD”: ART EXHIBITION AT THE INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON BERNARD AKOI-JACKSON R. LANE CLARK1 The art exhibition, “Still: 2 Troubles One God, “ opened on 28 July 2009 at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, in conjunction with the Revisiting Modernization Conference, 27–31 July 2009. This exhibit was curated by Bernard Akoi-Jackson (artist and volunteer of the Nubuke Foundation , Accra) and R. Lane Clark (artist, Santa Barbara, California), and facilitated by Professor Takyiwaa Manuh, Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. The exhibition presented the work of both established and emerging Ghanaian artists, including Kofi Setordji, Benedict Kojo Quaye (Mr. Black), Kokor Kugblenu, Wiz Kudowor, Nicholas Kowalski, Fatric Bewong, and Dorothy Akpene Amenuku. Featuring paintings, sculptures, spoken word, and video installations, the wide variety of works and artists who participated in the exhibition approached the problems of Ghanaian iconography, the complicated notion of “tradition,” tourist art and its markets, national independence, the relationship between discontinuous cultural norms and visual representation, as well as individual expression. The next day, Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Kwame Amoah Labi (University of Ghana) facilitated a roundtable that included some of the artists who participated in the exhibit. In the text to follow, we are reprinting the curatorial statement that accompanied the exhibit along with brief biographies of the exhibited artists, as well as a sampling of their work. —The Editors 1. All photos by R. Lane Clark. 264 Ghana Studies • volumes 12–13 • 2011 Curatorial Statement Ghanaian artistic production has for a long time been perceived by scholars , mainly in terms of anthropology, cultural symbolism, and traditional ritual practices. Since the 1950s, with the onset of modernization during the late colonial period, most modern and secularized art forms (among them painting and wood carvings) have emphasized Ghanaian cultural norms and nostalgia for romanticized visions of village life, such as African market scenes. This conventional imagery has appealed to the Ghanaian middle class, as well as to tourists. The exhibition, “Still: 2 Trouble(s) One God,” borrows from local commercial bus signage to communicate the central theme, “Dilemmas of Difference,” as an apt metaphor to the challenges that Ghanaian artists encounter through their engagement with Figure 1. Art opening at the Institute of African Studies (IAS) on 28 July 2009. Pictured : Takyiwaa Manuh (Director, IAS, University of Ghana), Anne Hugon (University of Paris I), and Marleen De Witte (University of Amsterdam), with wood sculpture by Kofi Setordjil. Akoi-Jackson and Clark • “Still 2 Trouble(s) One God” 265 modernization and the international art market. Confronted with the Diaspora and perceptions that demote the African experience and the conditions on the continent—frequently referred to as Afro-Pessimism—they remain vigilant about various forms of artistic appropriations. In their work, they explore new utopias of difference and refer to familiar twentieth - (and twenty-first-) century artistic themes including the appropriations of traditional African art through Cubism and other modernist forms of expression. However, it is important to remember that referencing these themes is not merely an imitation but an act of transformation within an African context. “Still: 2 Trouble(s) One God,” as the artistic component of the Revisiting Modernization Conference at the Institute of African Studies , University of Ghana, Legon, thus essentially attempts an engagement (not illustration) of the issues that artists confront. The title itself implies a dilemma and endeavors to interpret the prevailing zeitgeist of contemporary cultural production in Ghana. The artists’ individual expressions not only confront the issue of modernization and its effects on life generally but are also contextually located in the era of purported globalization that include the feverish “evangelization” of democracy the world over, fuel, energy and food crises, population expansion, global warming, and epidemic disease. Noteworthy is these artists’ awareness of the prevailing issues; how they have engaged with them, in one way or the other, remains unique. Another binding factor is that these artists were born just at, a little before...