Dialectical Sculptural Experimentations of Postmodern Sculpture in Ghanaian Context

Abstract

Commemorative and allegorical sculptures are very important constituents in the spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal art forms of any given community or people. This is because, not only are they symbolic, they also represent important landmarks in the history of the people. Constricting formal configuration of commemorative narratives in Ghana is the neoclassical concept of the monument which is heavily modelled on an “idealist myth” (Krauss, 1981,) However exhuming medieval spatial metaphors, this paper expounds how pole ideologies in history Vis a Vis current thought have informed and thus negotiated and expanded the frontiers of formal aesthetic dialogues. Attention will be drawn to the oversubscribed ‘idealist’ ideals (like frontality, the figure, the pedestal and preference for the noble media like stone, wood, bronze ivory cement etc.) in the expressing of commemorative sculpture in Ghana as if it were the modus- operandi. Finally, a research work which used ‘Fante’ proverbs as its principal reference point is introduced not to only seek a defiance of these academic conventions but also explore the vernacular qualities of found media (ready- made) specifically scrap metals which have had former lives before and thus fraught with in context meaning to a new aesthetic end.

Keywords: narratives, readymade, hybridity, dualism, dialectic, idealism, materialism, minimalism.

DOI: 10.7176/ADS/83-04

Publication date:July 31^st 2020