Art and the Afterlife: Fantasy Coffins

Eric Adjetey Anang has been invited to give the keynote talk for the One World Initiative at Sac State in April 2019. He is a world-renowned Ghanaian artist who heads a fantasy coffin workshop, the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop in Accra, Ghana. His workshop creates fantasy coffins (abebuu adekai), which are a tradition of the Ga people of Ghana. The coffins are carved into elaborate shapes that are usually related to the identity of the deceased (for example, the family of a deceased fisherman may request a fish-shaped coffin). The Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, founded by Seth Kane Kwei in the 1950s, is one of the most renowned fantasy coffin workshops in Ghana; since the 1980s, coffins from the workshop have been exhibited in art museums all over the world, including the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Adjetey Anang, the grandson of Kane Kwei, revitalized the workshop in 2005 and has been a visiting artist at a variety of universities in the United States, including the University of New Hampshire, Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and the University of Iowa. In 2017, he had an exhibition at the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa titled “Art and the Afterlife.” His work has been featured in major media outlets including National Geographic, Slate, and CNN.

Adjetey Anang will be in residence in the Art Department of Sacramento State for the week, working with students on a fantasy coffin. Students will also give a presentation on their work with the artist on the same day as the keynote.

Thurs 4/18:
-10:30am-11:45am: Student Symposium (Forest Suite and Orchard Suite, University Union)
-Noon-1:30pm: Keynote Presentation (Cottonwood Suite, University Union)
-2pm-4pm: Reception and Unveiling of Fantasy Coffin (Kadema Hall Breezeway)