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Noldor Residency Offers Boost For Artist's Mind And Body Of Work
Non-profit organisation Noldor is inviting applications for its prestigious solo artist residency. The project, the first of its kind in Ghana, was launched last year to support the work of an emerging African artist. FLYafrica speaks to last year’s recipient, Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Taku, about the creative launchpad the residency provides while Noldor founder Joseph Awuah-Darko reveals prestigious new additions to the team and plans for expansion.
Emmanuel Taku graduated from Accra’s prestigious Ghanatta College of Arts and Design – where alumni include the internationally renowned Amoaka Boafo and Kwesi Botchway – but in the decade that followed, the striking figurative works Taku produced, using a variety of materials, from acrylic to textiles and newspapers, made few waves outside the capital. To make a living, he returned to teaching visual arts to college students.
However, in the autumn of last year, he experienced what he calls “a turning point” when he was selected to be the first artist-in-residence at the Noldor’s art studio in Accra’s beachside Labadi district.
The non-profit is the first to offer such a residency in Ghana and the four-week programme also sets itself apart with its holistic approach to nurturing the chosen artist’s creativity. Three weeks of access to the materials and studio space of the vast Noldor warehouse is followed by a week-long wellness retreat led by a clinical psychologist.
Noldor founder and director Joseph Awuah-Darko launched the residency to nurture emerging African artistic talent and says Taku’s work immediately stood out when it came to choosing a winner from among the hundreds of applications. Here was an under-the-radar, homegrown artist pursuing his own distinct vision.
He says: “I felt a personal connection the first time I saw his anthropomorphic figures on my Instagram feed. There was something special about his mixed medium approach that just jumped at me on the screen. And naturally as a seasoned collector myself, I wanted to know more. When I approached Taku and we had a deep conversation, I was really stunned by his commitment to his practice and knowledge of his decade-long journey as a relatively obscure practitioner. Finally, I was also adamant with my team that the first artist-in-residence come from Ghana.”
For Taku, the residency gave him the platform he needed to take his work to another level. “It has truly been an eye-opening experience,” he says. “As someone who has been practicing in obscurity for 10 years, it feels good to have alchemised my practice in ambitious large format. Before Joseph ‘discovered’ my work, I was using social media as a democratic conduit to sell my work, but had little traction or meaningful exposure to be a part of the wider contemporary art ecology. I have done a full ‘180’ and can now see a meaningful career doing what I love with tangible longevity.”
New collection
Taku began his residency in November, gaining around-the-clock access to Noldor’s cavernous studio. Its 150 sq m of space was initially “intimidating”, he says, but it allowed him to create larger, more adventurous work. His three weeks there gave him an unprecedented opportunity to focus on his craft and soon a body of work took shape.
‘Temple of Blackness – It Takes Two’, a collection of 10 paintings created during Taku’s time at Noldor, was conceived as an effort to reclaim a black narrative and identity. The title plays on an affecting phrase Taku heard used by British-Ghanaian artist John Akomfra to describe his childhood feelings of awe and dislocation as he gazed at the works of UK icons such as John Constable and JMW Turner in museums, which he termed ‘temples of whiteness’.
Taku says: “I just remembered how that clicked for me, and I had a deep desire to flip this rhetoric on its head and essentially create my own ‘Temple of Blackness’ capturing black people as demi-gods or heroes without pupils or eyes.”
The blank-eyed sinuous figures of Taku’s collection, often painted as twins in replicated poses do have an otherworldly power and majesty. Their muscular physiques are tattooed with newspaper and magazine cuttings and draped in flowing garments decorated with paisley print.
Taku, who is fond of sporting paisley himself, is aware of the accusations of cultural appropriation that surround the fabric with its signature patterns actually lifted from East India during British colonial rule. It is all part of the palimpsest of stories that make up identity, which the artist aims to reflect in his work.
“The use of floral paisley prints comes from my personal fascination with the pattern and fabric that has always been a part of my life since youth,” Taku says. “I also felt that paisley represents a melting pot of cultural identity; first being fashioned in India and expanding in reach beforebecoming adopted into a Britishsensibility and finally, the sartorialmainstream. I’ve always worn paisley.
“The newspapers capture themedia as a symbol of supposed truth,which we all fall prey to.”
The Noldor residency seems tohave brought Taku the confidencenot just to work on large canvases,but also address the grand themesthat connect his collection as well.He has also felt ready to take on newtechniques. The paisley patterns wereachieved through screen printing,which Taku had not attempted before.
Taku also credits the week at anequestrian retreat – a grand stablesand living space on the outskirts ofAccra which has been owned by theAwuah-Darko family for the past fouryears – in giving him the opportunityto explore personal themesand use them creatively. The weekallowed Taku time to commune withnature, read, reflect and take part inart therapy sessions with a clinicalpsychologist – “we all refer to her asBaabs,” says Awuah Darko.
A safe environment
The wellness retreat was very muchAwuah Darko’s idea – the filmmaker,social entrepreneur and musician isa vocal champion of mental wellnessand starred in the 2018 documentary‘It’s Okay’, which examined his ownstruggles with depression – so wasdelighted when Taku shared how muchhe had got out of the week away.
He says: “In my conversations withTaku, whom I consider a great friend,he has mentioned how beneficial it wasto have a safe space to openly discussaspects of his life during the residency.This felt so fulfilling to hear. Becausethis is what I think will move the discussionson mental health forward – creatingsafe environments to have saiddiscussions in the first place.”There is also a creative environment at Noldor’s Labadi base. Awuah-Darko has been keen to build a family of artists at the studio with a host of upcoming talent awarded year-long junior fellowships. Each year a senior fellow is also appointed. They will be more established artists who get their own studio – complete with Miro-inspired chandelier – and library from which to share their skills and complete their own body of work over the year of their tenure.
CREATIVE SPACE The Noldor’s exhibition space
Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah, who has just been appointed as Noldor’s first senior fellow, acted as a mentor to Taku during his residency. The advice was welcome. As a mixed media artist who has blazed an international trail with recent shows including a solo exhibition in New York, Appah has long been an inspiration to Taku.
Awuah-Darko was also a fan of Appah’s work and considered him the perfect fit as mentor and senior fellow. “Gideon was the first artist I ever seriously collected, rather precociously, about three years ago, and as a friend it has been amazing to see him blossom to become such as amazing talent. I have a deep respect for Gideon’s practice and visual language, but more so I respect his willingness to mentor Emmanuel Taku during the course of his tenure as an artist-in-residence. That openness to engage and offer support to an up-and-coming practitioner embodies the spirit of what we seek to achieve at Noldor.” For his part, Appah found the mixed media experience he shared with Taku brought a special understanding to their work together.
FIRST RESIDENT Emmanuel Taku
“It is always profoundly intriguing when there are parallels that exist in the work between mentor and mentee,” he says. “Exploring the commonalities while being able to offer substantiated critique on Taku’s work throughout his visual development was a privilege. Our shared desire to capture near utopian abstraction in our work was also another interesting discovery on my part and I am very pleased with his progress. I strongly believe that Taku has a bright future and am elated to bear witness to his growth.”
Taku credits his time at Noldor with giving him the confidence to grow as an artist. In a conversation with Appah record on the Noldor website, he says: “Growth can be a scary thing but it is good to have someone who believes in you, empowering and enabling you to push your limits, and delve deeper into the true meaning of your practice.”
New candidates
‘Temples of Blackness – It Takes Two’, Taku’s and the Noldor residency’s first exhibition, was unveiled in December. It ran from December 4 until January 17 and attracted the interest ofinternational media as well as crowds of art lovers, among them Taku’s students – a gesture that “warmed my heart”, he says. Now the Noldor team is considering the candidates for the 2021 residency. Awuah-Darko has ambitious long-term plans for the non-profit organisation – he has just announced the appointment of award-winning architect Sir David Adjoye as its Advisory Patron to help Noldor achieve its vision – and hopes to unearth another original African talent as the second artist-in-residence, building on the high standards set by Taku. He says: “For 2021, I am truly hoping to find someone from the continent [Africa], who has spent over three years pursuing their practice and has been technically training in some capacity tied to their work as an artist. Character and authenticity are also something we look for in our selection of artists, and I am endlessly excited to find a gem with a unique point of view. Though I am open to both genders, I am interested to see what female applicants have in store for us this year, as they seem to be lacking within the mainstream conversations surrounding great artists.” Artists interested in being considered have until the end of August to apply. If you are looking for that “turning point” in your career, this could be your chance.
More emerging African art at ADA
Another gallery that continues to raise awareness of the work of emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora is the ADA \ contemporary art gallery in Accra’s Airport Residential Area.
The gallery’s latest exhibition is Enter Paradise by South African artist Zandile Tshabalala. Barely in her 20s and still a university student, the Sowetoborn Tshabalala has already had her work shown at galleries in London and Johannesburg, but this is the first solo exhibition and brings together a series of self-portraits revisiting the representation of the Black female figure throughout art history.
Enter Paradise is on display until April 18 at ADA, which can be found at the Villagio Vista. For more details, visit ada-accra.com
Application instructions
Required material:
• A current CV or artist résumé
• Artist statement/biography
• A statement of intent
• Two professional references with contact information for each
• Work samples – ZIP file including up to 10 images of work as digital images no larger than 1MB each and labelled lastname_1, lastname_2, etc. Include a description sheet with your name, the image name, the work’s title, date executed, dimensions and media.
Once you have all the requirements, send them to info@noldorresidency.com Noldor does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sex, race, national origin, religion, age, or sexual orientation. We consider ourselves a safe space for all.
