Africolour - Diginner Gallery x The Bridge Gallery: Tokyo, Japan
What drives us into action? Why are we attracted to certain energies?
We rejoice when trees grow and flowers bloom. Sunlight burns our skin. A perfectly leisurely day spent peacefully with a breeze, and good music. Big moments in sports and their jubilant spectators. Soul-stirring music and precious moments in a heart-wrenching film. The sun sets and rises again. In this universe, many stars are being sucked into black holes, while the distance between the stars continues to get further and further apart and the whole universe continues to expand apparently. Is there a connection between the energy that governs everything in this universe and what we are attracted to and inspired by? What separates good from evil? A person once in despair becomes hopeful and starts a new journey. New beginnings. New encounters. Follow your intuitions and listen to internal whispers of your own heart. Poems and stories that to be shared by many around the world and that passed down through the generations are also created in the solitude of the authors. When I came across the works of Sarfo Emmauel Annor, a young artist from Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana, West Africa, on Instagram, I immediately contacted him and started communicating with his agents Alexandre and Vianney from The Bridge Gallery in Paris. I’m delighted that Sarfo’s first solo exhibition in Japan “AfriColour” to be held at Diginner Gallery in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo that is owned by Hironobu Suzuki, a very close friend of mine over 20 years whom I met while studying in New York. This publication is also made possible with the help of Yohei Ishimaru from Tang Deng, the publisher of this publication. Most, or at least half, of our lives may be determined by who we trust and what we believe in. People who normally live in different worlds came together on a single project. This is a small testimony to who and what we have believed in and lived our lives accordingly. Life is a series of present moments. Life revolves around decisions, actions and the coincidences that fill the gaps between them.
Helen O’Connell and I met and lived in Japan for a couple of years before we spent a few months in her home Manchester, UK. Then we headed to Ghana in 2007 to teach as volunteer teachers at the Juliet Johnson School Complex in New Tafo-Akim and live there. The following year, in May 2008, while travelling around the neighbouring countries before returning to the UK, we were in a shared taxi in Benin. That’s when we were involved in a car accident. Helen died and I survived.
When I first saw Sarfo’s work on Instagram, I was immediately intrigued by its intense colours and simple yet strong compositions. At the same time, I remember being so excited to realise that he was an artist from Ghana more specifically from Koforidua, a neighbouring town to New Tafo-Akim, where Helen and I lived together. I was driven by this ‘sign’ and found myself contacting Sarfo straight away and this is how the very first tangible part of my personal journey SPIRARE project has begun. It will soon be 16 years since Helen passed away. Through this project, I would like to celebrate her life, which was short yet has touched and continues to resonate with the hearts of so many in this world, and commemorate a new beginning of my own.
In Gratitude, Growth and Grace,
Kentaro Taguchi
