By John Owoo
(In Accra – Ghana)
Paintings, murals and scultptures by London-born Barbadian artist Andrew Pierre Hart are currently on show at Gallery 1957, following a two month residency with the celebrated Gallery.
Inspired by “Sonara” and “Blacqousti”, which appear to be metaphysical figures that possibly represent varying aspects of sound, healing and consciousness, his colour palette that emanate from the canvases are largely inspired by the colours of Ghana’s national flag – red, gold, green and a black star.
The artworks equally tend to relate to a healing journey or spiritual awakening through sound, alongside larger themes in mythology and ancient spirituality while posing questions of what it means to listen and to hear rhythms of the earth and humans.
Indeed, works on display move in sync with the undulating forms and figures that exist within his sonic mythology while expanding their lore with site specific murals that respond to people and spaces in which the works were created.
Despite the conspicous absence of drums in Hart’s work, they are nevertheless all-pervading. Undeniably, his canvases and the sprawling murals which surround them are similar to the Ghanaian “Tamalin” drum, which is stretched more or less like a canvass.
Titled “The Listening Sweet II Ghana”, the exhibition interweaves many conceptual parts including robust and rhythmic musical instruments sculpted from wood that are reflected in the instruments being played by the musicians within the colouful paintings.
With his murals acting as a link between his paintings and sculptures, they are visualized as freestyle improvizations that hit the walls without pre-sketches. These vehement bursts of lines and monochromatic spaces bend and wrap thereby triggering interference that is melodious and distractive at the same time.
For Hart, the spaces between the diasporas of the United Kingdom, Barbados and Ghana are connected like knots in the past, present and future. These loops of history and relational narratives emerge in disparate ways throughout this effervescent body of work, invoking audiences to slip in and out of time.
The exhibition ends on Saturday January 11, 2025.
