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Artist:
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Sowah Kwei
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Title:
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Fantasy coffin
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Date:
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1993
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Medium:
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Wood, plaster, acrylic paint
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Dimensions:
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46 x 50 x 120 in. (116.84 x 127 x 304.8 cm)
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Credit Line:
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The Robert C. Winton Fund
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Location:
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Gallery 250
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The imagination need not be limited by death: If you lived among the Ga people of Ghana, you could be buried in a giant cell-phone coffin, a cacao pod, or anything else related to your profession or social standing. This tradition was started in the 1950s by two artists trained in European carpentry. From the 1980s on, several workshops have produced coffins solely for the local and international art market, like this lobster coffin, pieced together from dozens of parts, covered with plaster, and sprayed with acrylic paint, a âfantasy coffinâ never intended for burial.
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Artist/Creator(s)
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Name:
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Kwei, Sowah
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Role:
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Maker
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Nationality:
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Ghanaian
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Life Dates:
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Ghanaian, 1954 - 1999
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Object Description
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Inscriptions:
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"Kane Quaye's Super Coffins...Accra Ghana"
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Classification:
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Funerary Goods
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Physical Description:
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Coffin representing a rock lobster with five pairs of jointed limbs, two long antennae, which are hinged, and two paired feelers on top. It is painted a green color with six white and black stripes around the body, orange and white paint at sides, and light-purple painted anntenae. The upper body is covered in spines and has a rough texture.
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Creation Place:
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Africa, Ghana, West Africa region, ,
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Accession #:
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2010.72
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Owner:
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The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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