BY GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR
CONSTANCE E. Swaniker is not a household name in the continent’s art scene, but this year, the 38 years old lady took a bold step at making herself known beyond her immediate environment, Accra. She decided to hold a show in Lagos to internationalise her work.
Titled, Juxta Posed, and slated for November 5 to 14 at the Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos, Constance is showing works that task sensibilities.
She had held a solo show in June, which received rave reviews and critical acclaim from art lovers who thronged the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra.
Why is she just hitting the exhibition circuit?
“At the initial stages, I channelled much of my work into functional pieces, so, I went more into the commercial route as opposed to the typical route many artists take. The traditional art route is difficult for young artists — especially so for women, that have yet to make their mark in the art world,” she says.
According to her, the bit of sculpting she used to do was mainly on commissioned pieces. “Now, I feel I’m in a better place to concentrate more on the purely artistic aspects.”
EARLY in life, the young lady realised she could break out on her own. Whilst a student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Constance worked as an apprentice carpenter for a period of five years in a joinery company but specialised in metal work and sculpture, graduating with honours in Sculpture.
“Indeed, there is no greater challenge, excitement and satisfaction in life than turning your ideas into reality,” she retorts.
She has raised the benchmark in the wrought iron industry in Ghana and remains an outstanding leader in her field.
“For a woman to venture into a male-dominated sector and excel is no easy feat,” she says.
A descendant of the legendary Amartei Fiator, the lady, who is from the Amartse We family, a Ga clan famous for producing goldsmithers and revered throughout the Asere Dynasty, has a heritage of excellent ‘craftsmen’ who plied their trade at a time it was taboo for women to work as blacksmiths or goldsmiths.
Her aunty, Korkor Amartiefio, is a well-known Ghanaian artist and has had managerial experience with the National Theatre, while her uncle, Nick Amarteifio, the former Mayor of Accra, is a respected architect with an international taste for fine works.
The mother of two, who has a multi-cultural / multi-functional background, having spent 18 years outside her native Ghana — in the Gambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe — says, “this diversity in my background has been the dominant factor in how I approach the ‘arts’ and business.”
FROM its beginnings in a wooden shed 11 years ago, Accents and Arts, which Constance is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, now sits on an expanded plot of land including offices, showrooms and workshops fitted with modern equipment.
She started working from her family’s home in Bubuashie, a suburb of Accra and created garden fountains and ornaments and sold them to friends and those who have acquired a taste for fine furniture.
Armed with the little money she had raised from selling fountains, as well as a loan secured from her mother, she built a shed and that began the journey into entrepreneurship.
Today, the company has a workforce of 40 staff including carpenters, electricians, sprayers, creative artistes and administrative staff.
“When we started, it was with the aim of rediscovering the striking and artistic nature of wrought iron, today, we skillfully blend wood with glass and various materials to bring out the splendour of metal art,” she says.
“Using the finest iron, wood and other raw materials, the company manufactures state-of-the-art gates, furniture, balustrades, accents, garden décor and hand-painted wrought iron chandeliers, lamps stands and candlestick holders.”
The company has also created for itself a very reputable clientele, with their products seen not only in diplomatic homes but also in Ghana’s Parliament House, African Regent Hotel, Mahogany Lodge, Labadi Beach Hotel, Buka Restaurant, Melting Moments and construction company Taysec, all in the nation’s capital, Accra.
Constance, who is angry at the extent to which Africans had abandoned their creativity for mass-produced articles from abroad, is confident of designing and producing “tastefully manufactured things for our homes by looking within the borders of Ghana to her own natural roots for inspiration.”
Touching on the items designed by the company, Constance said a lot of thinking and creativity go into each piece to meet the expectations of clients.
“We design each piece to be viewed as a work of art as well as a utilitarian item. We believe that our products represent the best that this nation’s artistic and artisanal tradition can produce.”
CONSTANCE is passionate about serving her community and nation. She works hand in hand with the local Assembly woman, “to organise periodic clean up and tree planting campaigns within the neighboring communities and schools,” she reveals.
She also goes a step further in recruiting underprivileged and would be delinquents in the area. She puts them through three-year apprenticeship training in carpentry; welding and spraying to enable them build a secure and better future.
Each year, she also takes on students from the tertiary institutions to provide them with a hands-on experience of their courses at Accents & Art.
In recognition of her immense contribution towards the development of the community and the nation as a whole and appreciation for her role in building up and training the youth and the elderly in all spheres of life and also providing employment in one or the other to the general public, she has received several awards such as Outstanding Industrial Metal Furniture Firm in Ghana Award by wAi Africa, The Network Journal Africa 40-under 40 Achievement Award (2010) and Community Service Acknowledgement Award by Nii Ashie Komowuo II, Chief of her locality. She has also won the Best Entrepreneur S.M.E. Innovation Award from the entrepreneurs’ foundation of Ghana and many other accolades.
In 2007 and 2008, Accents & Art featured on various TV programmes – Reuters News Agency, MNet’s Studio 53, TV Africa’s Obaa Mbo and TV3’s Today’s Woman & M’Asem.
What to expect
THEMES of transition, emancipation and resilience run through her motley of collection of works. Her courage is not only evidenced in her work but also as a single mother raising two boys.
At a time when the world is in danger of extermination as a result of conflicts, global warming, poverty, disease and many others, Killing Fields emerges to warn humanity of disaster waiting to happen. In this revolutionary piece, the destruction human beings cause to the world is represented, and thus, there’s a clarion call to save the planet.
In Killing Fields, Constance presents a beautiful and colourful garden with three offensive weapons perched right in the middle of it. The contrast is quite noticeable.
Her inspiration for this piece “came from reading an article where children in conflict regions innocently playing in fields only to be maimed by landmines,” she says.
In the piece, Pretty Wings, Constance depicts a woman on her mark, ready to sprint off, with her head bowed down owing to all the challenges in her life.
Another arresting work is titled, Weapon of Mass Destruction, and it’s in the form of a headless male torso.
Between his legs, in place of a male member, there hangs a huge pistol. This appears to be the ultimate male boast but as the name implies, it is a violent representation of a cruel murderous bravado.
It is a harrowing image in a continent where rape has been used deliberately as a weapon of war and where a lot of men still see it as part of the discourse between the sexes. This wonderful collection of thirty pieces reveals how far Constance has travelled in her life’s journey.
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