Fantasy coffin

Fantasy coffins or figurative coffins, also called “FAVs” (fantastic afterlife vehicles) and custom, fantastic, or proverbial coffins (abebuu adekai),[1] are functional coffins made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. These colorful objects, which developed out of figurative palanquins, are not only coffins but considered works of art. They were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1989. The seven coffins shown in Paris were made by Kane Kwei (1922–1992) and his former assistant Paa Joe (b. 1947).[2] Since then, coffins by Kane Kwei, his grandson Eric Adjetey Anang, Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah, Kudjoe Affutu, Theophilus Nii Anum Sowah, Benezate, and other artists have been displayed in international art museums and galleries around the world.[3]

Eric Adjetey Anang and the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop with a variety of fantasy coffin designs, including a chicken, crab and airliner.
  1. ^ Alternate Histories of the Abebuu Adekai. Roberta Bonetti, African Arts, Autumn 2010.
  2. ^ A Deathbed of a Living Man. A Coffin for the Centre Pompidou. Regula Tschumi in Sâadane Afif (ed.), „Anthologie de l’humour noir“, Paris: Editions Centre Pompidou. 2010. P.56.
  3. ^ The buried treasures of the Ga. Coffin art in Ghana. Regula Tschumi. Bern: Benteli 2008, p. 230-31.