Al Hassan Issah

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

Accra, Compound House Gallery, Kum: Ase, A Field Filled with Golden Spikes, 2023

Hassan’s multifaceted artistic practice centres on painting, exploring its theatricality, objecthood, and spatial dynamics. The artist seeks the relevance of drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture, within our contemporary context. Hassan draws inspiration from natural material and geometric patterns found in his hometown, Kumasi, as well as his personal experiences within the Zongo communities where the artist grew up. Hassan works with materials such as posters, acrylic/oil paints, cast iron/aluminium, wood, and steel pipes. These elements are unusually combined, through the expertise of local welders and craftsmen, creating constellations of objects and installations that reference aesthetics from specific epochs in global art history. Hassan’s artwork is a reflection of Kumasi's diverse spaces and cultures, exploring how they intersect and influence one another. It highlights Kumasi's unique contribution to modernity by blending forms and materials from world cultures, yet, it also acknowledges the risk of these designs becoming formulaic and conforming to hegemonic influences, potentially erasing their inherent diversity.