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| The work that didn't work |
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| Posted on: 2007-Oct-04 Kwaku SAKYI-ADDO |
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I've seen another straw mat-covering go up around the Cantonments round about. I take it that some landscaping, some sculpturing, some work of art — or what's supposed to be one — is going on behind the straw blanket.
But after what appeared inside Danquah Circle following months of crafting behind a similar curtain, I’m not terribly hopeful. But I’d like to be proved wrong.
I don’t know who designed the new Danquah Circle. And I’m glad that I don’t. That way, it’s easier to say what I think of it: My very humble, polite Akuapem view is that it’s further material for Zoomlion: Rubbish!
To start with, it’s too busy. There are too many elements. You’ve got a pair of painted women in one corner in an embrace.
Then there’s another sculpture of a woman tucked in another corner pounding fufu! Then there’s yet another woman carrying a baby on her back at the other end.
Then there’s a man banging away on a pair of talking drums.
Then there’s a straw hut (which I understand a mental patient set on fire - and he was damn right!)
Then there’s a long bench. I suppose that’s for the gardener, because I don’t see anyone going in there to meditate.
Then there’s a pair of Roman columns at the main entrance.
Then there’s that concrete balustrade encircling the entire disaster. Some of the lamps atop the balustrade have already burned out and are yet to/won’t ever be replaced.
I haven’t discussed the representation of Danquah himself because he’s lost, drowned, ambushed by his own supporting cast. He’s marooned out of sight by an over-enthusiastic artist with no use for minimalism.
I see a clear attempt at Africanising the theme. That’s brilliant. But in that case what’re those Roman columns doing in there?
A 50-foot elevated marble pedestal, similar to that of the unknown soldier at the Independence Square, with Danquah’s statue at the top, visible half a mile away from all four directions, and surrounded simply by a manicured lawn would have done it.
There’s dissonance between the lack of artistic quality in the work and the enlightenment of the man it’s meant to celebrate. For, Danquah wasn’t just a politician. He was a poet, a playwright, a thinker.
One is unable to think upon this work.
This work fails.
This work doesn’t work.
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