Kwadwo Amfo
Dede-Enyo, 2022
Photograph on aluminium with satin coating
58 x 39cm
Edition 25 + 5 AP
Signed and numbered on the back by the artist
All prints come in a wooden frame
Dede-Enyo
€750,00
3 in stock
Shipping from the Netherlands. For customers outside the EU, local taxes and duty fees may apply and are at your expense.
About the artwork
The slender neck of Amfo’s subject is stacked with vibrant, beaded necklaces that complement the soft, pastel colours of her silken headscarf. Her dark brown shoulders are painted with white circular markings, creating a stark visual contrast. The woman portrayed in Kwadwo Amfo’s “Dede-Enyo” averts her eyes from the viewer as if in quiet contemplation. This gesture draws us into the composition and gives us an exclusive peek into an intimate moment.
The work is based on the ancient puberty rite Dipo, performed by the Shai and Krobo people of southeastern Ghana. Going through the Dipo rite, a girl transforms into a woman capable of fully participating in her community. During the ritual proceedings, Dipo girls are clothed in beautiful robes from waist to knee, leaving their torso exposed and bare breasted. Unveiled, the Dipo girls juxtapose the widely held views in contemporary Ghana that nudity is ‘indecent’ or ‘improper’; an opposition between sexuality and Ghanaian modesty that Amfo explores in this vibrant photograph.
Playing into the theme of pubescent transformation, the photograph is augmented with an AR layer that can be accessed via the app Artivive through your smartphone. Once you look at the image through your phone, it transforms into a video in which Ghanaian girls and women tell the story of their Dipo rite.
Part of the proceeds of this limited edition print will be donated to the Young Blood Foundation, a platform that invites artists in the early stages of their careers into an environment that will nurture and develop their talent.
Check out our Art Fix Podcast with Kwadwo Amfo where you can learn more about this work, and the photography that inspires him, as well as his ideas relating to black art and identity.
About Kwadwo Amfo
The Amsterdam based Ghanaian artist Kwadwo Amfo produces cutting social commentary in his photographs, touching on societal beauty standards, identity politics, social inclusion and conformity, and topics on the self and other. Born in 1990, Amfo established an early interest in art, developing a fondness for textiles and graphic design in secondary school, while reinforcing his interest in photography and filmmaking. He later combined these passions at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, from which he recently graduated in photography, and displayed his work in the Best of Graduates 2022 exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam. He also received the RM Photo Talent Award of 2022. The use of video media in the virtual space and augmented reality have become recent additions in Amfo’s ever expanding creative process and compelling search for truth.
If you are in need of a new and cutting-edge Art Fix, you are in luck: you can now admire Amfo’s photographs in his most recent exhibition at Ron Mandos Gallery, on show from October 1 through November 6, 2022!
