Constance Swaniker

JUXTAPOSED: Of Seduction, Awe and Perseverance.

 

The metal Sculpture of Constance Swaniker

 

Constance Swaniker’s exhibition entitled: “Juxtaposed” is without doubt a welcome re-introduction of contemporary Ghanaian art to the Nigerian and world art scene. For decades, courtesy the Signature Gallery, Nigerian* art lovers have been familiar with such names as Ablade Glover, Amon Kotei and Ato Delaquis.

 

This is not to say that that the Nigerian audience has not in recent years seen work by other contemporary artists like Kofi Setordji, Kofi Agorsor or Akwele Suma Glory. Indeed, one of the major influences on the contemporary Nigerian art scene has been the Ghanaian sculptor, El Anatsui. It is particularly relevant to mention Anatsui since Constance is herself a sculptor who was also trained in the very institution in which Anatsui was several years earlier.

 

The College of Art and Social Sciences as it is currently called, is in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. This singular institution has produced a stream of luminaries who are making waves all over the world. It is however unfortunate that Art Historians and Critics in the country have not been as proactive as to track these contemporary developments.

 

A well engaged Curatorial practice that would push the discourse of contemporary Ghanaian art onto the world arena is also lacking. It is hence meet that the Nike Art Gallery would host this showing of contemporary Ghanaian sculpture by none other than Constance Swaniker.

 

When one initially encounters Mended Distortions, a buoyant looking reclining figure, finished in matt black, looking velvety and sleeping all comfortably on the pristine floor; Noah’s Arc, an enigmatic human torso, fabricated into a gentle upward curve; or  See [Sea?] Life, a nearly lifelike melangé of sea creatures, dangling seductively from a pole, one is drawn in. The allure is almost irresistible.

 

The world of images, creatures and objects that Constance Swaniker unfurls is one of “sombre contemplation,” in the words of Nat Nuno Amarteifio. One is only just short of touching, maybe due to convention. But these objects are anything but conventional.  They beat any imagination of formal proportion of easy orchestration. The objects themselves and the concepts that they embody are as challenging as the processes that casted, moulded, fabricated or wrought them into existence.

 

And to think that they have emanated from the mind of a woman and have been so crafted by hands that are sure and most determined and dedicated! One is filled with something close to awe. Quite like El Anatsui’s process, Constance Swaniker also engages the hands of assistants. The processes are indeed laborious and protracted. Such feats cannot be achieved by an individual.

 

 

It is thus rewarding to celebrate a culmination of conception, labour of love and sheer dedication to the expression of human collaboration and artistic passion in every single art work.

 

Wrought iron, Weapons of Mass Destruction; fabricated metal, In Celebration, Breaking News, The Long Walk, Nature Abstracted; cut and welded sheets of metal, Exhilaration; metal brushed to a rustic finish, Walk A Mile in My Shoes, Problematic Solutions; or complemented with brightly coloured fabrics, Momentum; huge plain and crushed mirrors framed with fantasy metal beings and figures, Conversation with Mirrors; neon coloured metal umbrellas, balancing tentatively  on  a heavy metal scale pedestal, Coping Mechanisms; aspirations to higher heights, The Road Less Travelled; or elements of installation art, Progress Unexplained, Skeletons in the  Closet… it is a tumultuous cocktail of soft metallic delights, rusty, almost threatening metal appendages and intriguing metal surprises. Could one actually touch; dare feel the possible fecund pliability that is suggested in the yielding bosoms or rotund buttocks? Or would one only remain a lusty voyeur, imprisoned in a Web of Lies?

 

The glance can never be fleeting when one encounters the beings that populate Swaniker’s world. The lure remains and one would have to tarry longer. To actually gaze; contemplate and consider what mysteries these wrought metal beings intend or evoke. They are Hard and soft, thick and thin, static and dynamic, rough and smooth, shiny reflective and dull matt. The list of comparisons could continue forever and we’d still not be able to step out of Constance Swaniker’s world of images. If we were to summarize the total experience, it would be said that Swaniker’s sculptures are Simple yet Elegant; they are Course but Refined. That Constance Swaniker’s maiden show in Lagos, Nigeria is entitled Juxtaposed is no coincidence. Her entire oeuvre as with her being is epitomic of contradictions.

 

What could be more intriguing than Killing Fields, a mysterious composition of guns and blossoms, that presents a subtle swipe at the menace of landmines that have taken over the fields in which innocent children are to play in Rwanda, Angola or even Cambodia? With all these, there seems to be a general distrust of the ‘powers-that-be’ in Constance Swaniker’s work. The entire oeuvre is laden with firm yet gentle protest. With a work like Connections there is resonance in the kindred voices of other contemporary African sisters like Asa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Otobong Nkanga or Sokari Douglas Camp (who is herlself a formidable exponent of metal sculpture). In Kaleidoscope, Swaniker reiterates her distrust of the systems of men, where nothings is really what it seems. But in all this she is not at all pessimistic. 

 

Characteristic of Constance Swaniker is this unyielding belief in rebirth, survival and sheer potency!  And nothing communicates this better than Pretty Wings, a crouching female figure that sports the wings of a butterfly. The butterfly has been a recurring motif in Constance Swaniker’s work. It reads as a wish for the skies and even beyond.

Bernard Akoi-Jackson (Artist/Writer)

 

*The mention of Nigeria is here made, since this text originally accompanied an exhibition of Constance Swaniker in Nigeria.