Five years ago I started some experiments, hanging canvases on the walls of paint retail shops across Accra and Kumasi (two of the largest cities in Ghana). In these shops, the workers manually mix the desired paint colors and test them on their walls for their clients. As a result, there is always a buildup of layers of paint which I find very unusual and exciting. Various textures (visual and tactile) begin to form from the buildup over time. In many ways, it inspired a way to return to painting that might be closely associated with the traditional medium itself but at the same time depart from it in other formal ways. The sort of artistic intent or gesturing associated with painting is relinquished to the dictates of spontaneous testing. The picture is not determined by an artistic intent, but as a consequence of people’s desires to give their walls a new look plugged into the economy of paint. It is a kind of picture that evolves from an "unthought thought, a thought that cannot be attributed to the intention of the one who produces it" to borrow the words of Jacques Ranciere[i]. What pictures does the economy of paint paint? How do I evolve from here? Some experiments are underway. This is just a sneak-peek into my studio.
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