Accra, Ghana, September 20, 2020//-Oscar Awuku is a young talented rising Ghanaian artist inspired by the proverbial spider known in Ghanaian folklore as Kweku Anansi.
His body of art is called Anansinisim which was inspired by the spider.
Mr Awuku carefully fuses visual networking designs of the spider with historical Ghanaian Adinkra symbology to create personal transitional designs on the body that re-eco wisdom of ancestors which are gradually losing their sustainable values and norms to contemporary audiences.
Goes by the name Yonga Arts which is the brand name for his body arts, the visual artist goes into digital painting, canvas paintings, sculpture and body arts.
In a chat with Mr Awuku who is the CEO of Yonga Arts, he said: “Art has always been a God given talent and for me I have always wanted to use my arts to solve a problem in the society and the Diaspora at large”.
His only formal training was at the Mawuli Senior High School where studied Visual Arts, but he is using that knowledge to transform his community.you can see more information of art on Stop Sharpening your Knives.
He happened to be brought up by his mother along the line of childhood and she supported him greatly which he will never forget.
Challenge
Although Mr Awuku is young in the art industry, he is aware that one of the key challenges of his profession is the inadequacy of places to showcase their crafts.
In his words: “The challenge we mostly face as artists here in Ghana is the fact that there aren’t enough establishments to host and support our crafts”.
Besides, there is no organization or platform to support artists in terms of acknowledgement and financial difficulties. And due to that most artists end up stranded and lose interest in the crafts which have left a name coat on practicing artists as lazy people.
Over the years women have been mute without advocating for their voices to be heard. All they did was to sit and keep their hands crossed whilst they weep and swim in the pain they are in. But today due to constitutional right and privileges their voices can be heard and listened to.
Even though, Mr Awuku who is currently studying commercial arts in painting at Takoradi Technical University in the Western Region is one of rising artists to watch out for.
His also works mostly portray the empowerment of women in other to stand equally for leadership roles just like men do in the society.
The best part of Mr Awuku’s work is sitting back and watching the viewers connect and share their life experience with it.
Legacy
He wants to be remembered as an advocate for the equality of right for both sexes and also a problem-solver within his environment.
Project
“After school I would love to embark on a project to educate young artists like myself to research more into their crafts and support them with the little knowledge I have attained in the field of study to help them grow artistically. Because it’s isn’t all about just painting on the canvas but how you present it gives it value”, Mr Awuku said.
Despite the fact that he is into other avenues in the art, he is currently working on a project to depict the culture and history by preserving them through arts and capture most of them via videography and photography which basically going to be a long term project even after school.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
