In conversation with Bright Ackwerh
“I decided to use my art as a voice in the political space…I like to think of what I do as asking questions, because I consider it my responsibility, or my right.”
- Bright Ackwerh
Image: Kwame Pocho
Bright Ackwerh is an artist based in Ghana. His work tends to cover politics; encompassing, commenting and sometimes critiquing events, figures and situations. Bright always tries to uncover new perspectives and the often minority views that are not voiced in the central media.
You can see some of his work via his Instagram.
Hi Bright! I’ve been stalking your Instagram all morning, I am obsessed. Can you tell our readers a bit more about yourself?
I like to describe myself simply as an artist. I do a bunch of different things and I am always dabbling in one thing or another, so I like to just call myself an artist, so I am not boxed in to any one thing, corner, or a description.
I am 31, I have been painting actively since 2000 and errrrrr… a while. It’s something that I started doing in my childhood, and then as I grew up, I got to learn more and develop it. It’s been a journey.
Right now, I live in Accra and work here. But I have also spent some time in Kumasi because of school and work. My parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins all live in Accra too.
I can see some of your work on your Instagram, but can you explain a bit more about the messages and themes that you are trying to convey through your art?
Ghana from the inside, as I am sure you have a different perspective from the outside, has become very polarised through the lens of partisan politics. For a long time, maybe since 1992, we seem to have adopted a stable democracy, but everything is still seen through partisan politics.
In order to communicate with people, it is good to use the lens that they are already tapped into. When you grow up in Ghana politics is one thing that you naturally get socialised to, on the radio in the morning all of the discussions are about politics, unless there’s football on.
When I was at university, I guess I started to more directly feel the results of the policies that were being made and I became more politically engaged. I decided to use my art as a voice in the political space. I started to make commentary on what I was seeing. I like to think of what I do as asking questions, because I consider it my responsibility, or my right. Or both actually, it is my responsibility and my right to start asking questions of what is going on in the political space with stuff that I don’t really understand. These decisions and these things affect all of our lives.
I then started to look outside of just Ghana and look at what is happening in other countries, because what is happening in one space in the world effects everybody else, everywhere else. Those uncomfortable questions that people usually like to shy away from are exactly what I like to ask in my art.
Atewa Titanic, 2020, Image: Bright Ackwerh
Where does your motivation come from? Are you motivated by anger, or by admiration? What’s the emotion behind your art?
It’s a bit of everything. There are pieces that I’ve made that were just my reaction, my angry reaction to something I had read, or heard, or experienced. There are others that are inspired by sadness, or confusion, or fear. And sometimes even yes, there is admiration.
When I see something, depending on how I initially feel about it, I will make my commentary. Because of that I maybe miss the mark or go off a bit, but I believe that is all part of the work and the process.
How do you do your research? How do you decide what to focus a piece of artwork on?
I try to be as aware of what is going on as much as possible. I’m constantly tapping into the spaces where these conversations are being had, both from popular and unpopular sources. I tend to even be more interested in the unpopular sources. I might be more interested in the conversation two people are having on social media than what the major newspapers are saying, because I believe that that story in the newspaper already has enough traction. I like listening to the opinions of those who might not have been heard otherwise. These are often more interesting for art.
A lot of my work has come about from reading people’s posts on social media that I find funny. Once I get the clearances and permissions, I then translate these thoughts and feelings into an image. Some of my best work has come from these spaces. I also get inspired by music, film and tv too.
There was a time when I was only focused on Ghanaian content but now, I am focused on a broader scope. Since the opening up of the internet and social media it is much easier to get influenced by the rest of the world. For example, what is happening in the American elections.
Saint Bily, 2020, Image: Bright Ackwerh
Did you study art in school? Or was it just something you enjoyed as a hobby?
Growing up as a child, drawing was always a leisure activity for me. But the moment that I was found out to have a little bit of talent then people began to encourage me to take it up further.
In 2003, I entered senior high school and I chose to do the visual arts programme there. This is where and when I had some of my first official art lessons. But before that I was copying off of the work of more established artists. For example, I used to collect comic books, after I was finished reading, I would make copies of all the superheroes and characters and I would draw from movie posters. All of the things around me that were entertaining I used to draw. When I got into senior high school, I started to do some proper lessons, which is where I learnt proper art techniques.
After that I went to KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology). There was a very strong art education there and I learnt a lot there too. There are a lot of artists that I look up to now, and the internet has been amazing for this – social media, Youtube, websites. It’s meant that I haven’t stopped learning at any point.
What do your parents think of you being an artist? Were they sceptical at all at first?
When I first decided to pursue art in high school there was a bit of a disagreement about it. At the time, artists weren’t very revered. It’s quite a big risk to make a life for yourself in art, especially here in Ghana. But eventually my parents were convinced, and they allowed me to pursue it.
Now, I think I am at a stage where they obviously know that there is no turning back and they support me fully. There was a time when I used to make a different kind of art; I would paint lots of beautiful pictures and my parents would see them. They were very happy about this because it was easy to get paid for doing work like that. And then suddenly I started making ugly pictures of political characters and some of their reactions initially were “aren’t you going to get into trouble for this? Some of these guys can be very harsh when they react to public criticism.” Sometimes when I post my work online and it goes viral, then when the news gets back to my parents then there is a bit of a fear. But it’s just art.
Has there ever been any backlash from anyone you’ve drawn?
Yeah, there’s been a few. There was this very loud one in 2017 when I made a painting about the involvement of Chinese nationals in Ghana in mining. Suddenly we had Chinese nationals in Ghana using sophisticated equipment for industrial mining, the environmental impact was so sudden and so heavy, and everyone was complaining. Obviously, our government owed so much money to the Chinese government and banks that they didn’t really have much power or say in the situation. So, I made a painting about it and it was one of my pieces that went viral. The Chinese embassy in Ghana saw it and they wrote some letters and held a press conference…
It was quite scary. I didn’t go to the press conference myself, but I have friends who work in the media, so they were all invited. Someone slipped me a copy of the agenda and I saw what they were going to discuss. But the whole experience brought more attention to my work because everybody began to see the potential and the kind of voice that artists can have even when they create something so simple. It’s powerful. This was an issue that the government and the media was trying to cover up.
It was a scary experience, but I hope that it inspired others to create work that is important. We can’t shy away from the fear of backlash. I realised that this is how you can make those guys respond to the negative effects of the decisions that they make in their offices.
Have you come up against anything in your career so far that annoys you about the art industry?
I am the type of person who chooses to see any kind of difficulty at all as an opportunity. When you are posed with a problem it is just an opportunity to find a new solution.
If you are in Ghana and you are making art, one of the very common problems you hear is the lack of certain structures that ensure that artists can sustain themselves and their practice. There needs to be a lot more galleries in Ghana, especially when you look at the number of galleries in comparison to the amount of talent in the country. We don’t have any state run or state funded museums in Ghana at all. A building was put up, but it has been closed for renovations for about 25 years.
But all of these problems are also potential spaces for solutions.
Have you found the sense of community amongst artists even stronger as a result of the collective struggles that you all experience?
Yes, there is a very, very strong sense of community here. It is one of the things that has actually kept a lot of the artists going. There are huge festivals, group exhibitions that is all the work of artists coming together to create opportunities because no one else would do it for them. There are several collectives in Accra, some in Kumasi, there are several starting in Tamale now too.
Do you have any favourite artists?
Oh, wow. That would be a very, very long list.
Because of the nature of my work, and what I’m trying to do, some of my inspirations are not necessarily from visual artists. Some work in music. So, for instance there is, Fela Kuti, a Nigerian activist who uses his work for a lot of social commentary and political activism. That is one of the easiest names that comes to mind. Then there is FOKN Bois which is a Ghanaian duo that uses music and film to push different conversations in the Ghanaian and global political landscape.
When it comes to the more visual art there are a couple of illustrators who are based in the US who have influenced my style. Two names that come to mind are Jason Seiler and Thomas Fluharty. But there are also illustrators who are based in Ghana who have done a lot of work in the past, and what I’m trying to do is almost build on the legacy that they left. For example, AKOSUA which is a women’s name, but he’s actually a man. He’s trying to hide his identity as he started working in the time when freedom of speech wasn’t really a concept in Ghana and so he had to hide.
Occupation, 2017, Image: Bright Ackwerh
Finally, what is it that you love the most about Ghana? Make me jealous…
I love Ghana, even with all the problems that it has, it’s home. And it is up to all of us who call it home to fix it up. I love travelling and seeing other places but if I stay somewhere else for too long, I just want to go back home. I have a connection to this space and everything here so I feel like it’s my responsibility to be here and make it the best that it can be.
I love the food, I love the culture, all my family and friends are here. Everything that has supported my life and my growth is here.
Thank you so much for chatting to me Bright, it was lovely to meet you!
You can find out more about Bright via his Instagram. Click here for more interviews from our Ghana Culture Series.
Interview by Mollie Cohen
