Published: 17 Jul 2017 Source: University Relations Office (URO)
The Faculty of Art of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in collaboration with the Museum of Science and blaxTarlines Kumasi, project space for contemporary art under the Department of Painting and Sculpture has opened the 2017 KNUST end-of-year exhibition at the Museum of Science and Technology in Accra.
The exhibition was to honour the lifelong work of the Ghanaian modernist, Professor Ablade Glover, an internationally acclaimed painter/academic, who currently heads the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra.
The exhibition was opened by renowned Prof. El Anatsui, the Nigeria-based Ghanaian international artist and alumnus of KNUST. The exhibition showcases works by a choice selection of artists from the 2017 graduating class as well as guest artists comprising alumni, teaching assistants and lecturers.
In her opening remarks, Nana Nyarkua Ocran, Deputy Director of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) said her outfit was proud to be associated with the exhibition and would continue to partner the project space for contemporary art to further the development of art for posterity.
Mrs. Ocran said GMMB had collaborated with and hosted KNUST exhibitions since 2015. She noted that as abstract as the theme may appear, it gives an educational insight into novelties in the realm of the art of our time.
Prof. El Anatsui in opening the exhibition thanked the Faculty and the University for the honour done him. Also in attendance was Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo.
“Orderly Disorderly 2017” completes the trilogy of large-scale end-of-year exhibitions held by blaxTarlines Kumasi, the contemporary art incubator space of KNUST, in collaboration with the GMMB and the Museum of Science and Technology (MST).
The previous exhibitions dubbed “The Gown Must Go to Town” in 2015 and “Cornfields in Accra” in 2016 all in Accra were in honour of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo respectively. “Cornfields in Accra” also honoured the memory of Cameroonian conceptual artist Goddy Leye (1965-2011).
“Orderly Disorderly” shares and celebrates the political vision of artist and educator Prof. Ablade Glover who mobilized artists toward economic emancipation within a hopeless artistic milieu in the early 1990s when Ghana’s cultural institutions had been starved of domestic and international support.
“Orderly Disorderly” combines the political attitudes and principles underlying Iranian film maker Abbas Kiarostamis’ practice, notably “The Bread and the Alley” (1970), “Orderly Disorderly” (1881) and “The Chorus” (1982) and Seidou’s emancipatory pedagogy.
Kiaristomi is reputed for his deliberate use of non-actors and unprofessional crew to produce very significant films. His vital efforts to intervene in the film form saw him subvert conventions of film making in order to transform and reinvent the medium.
“Orderly Disorderly” presents projects developed by well over hundred artists, some of whom are young graduates, seasoned artists and a special space given to the “unknown artist”. The exhibition runs daily from 8.00am- 6.00pm till 1st September, 2017.