Talk : Abdul-Salam Alhassan in conversation with Lotte Løvholm

A talk about among other things the potentialities that lie within “ruined” materials and how destruction may yet give birth to new narratives.

Abdul-Salam Alhassan is currently in Copenhagen as part of Art Hub Copenhagens new residency-exchange programme called Wintanworks – a collaboration with blaxTARLINES KUMASI in Ghana.

As part of his residency, he is showing selected works in the windows of Art Hub Copenhagen and giving this talk centered around his practice.

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Participation in the talk is free, but we recommend that you secure a seat by taking out a free ticket here.

The talk will be in English.

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Alhassan lives and works in Kumasi, Ghana. In his practice he seeks to understand the languages of painting and sculpture by way of experimenting with a variety of materials including, but not limited to plastic mats. Alhassan collects these materials which are embedded with histories of spirituality, knowledge, and leisure from mosques, schools, and various homes across the country.

Merging a background in painting and a keen interest in the materiality of these mats, their colours, textures, and the space they occupy, as well as a delight in layering, Alhassan employs burning as a technique to create abstract paintings, objects and sculptures.

Burning is one of many methods in which these materials are discarded after having reached their end-of-life phase By his praxis, Alhassan revives the material into new life using the very methods that would otherwise have concluded their demise.

His works explore the potentialities that lie within “ruined” materials and how destruction may yet give birth to new narratives. Alhassan earned his BFA in Painting at the Department of Painting and Sculpture, KNUST-Kumasi, where he is also currently pursuing a MFA. He has participated in an augmented reality exhibition dubbed “The Powerhouse” hosted concurrently at Kunstmuseum Bonn in Bonn, Germany and KNUST Museum in Kumasi, Ghana.

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ABOUT WINTANWORKS

Wintanworks (Winter + Harmattan) is Art Hub Copenhagen’s new residency-exchange programme between AHC in Denmark and the artist/curator collective blaxTARLINES KUMASI in Ghana. As the name of the residency suggests it is planned to take place in February and the general idea of the programme is to foster artistic exchange between the two countries.

The trial run of the residency takes place in February/March 2023. For this occasion, the Danish artist Sofie Amalie Andersen and the Ghanaian artist Abdul-Salam Alhassan have been selected by a jury to participate in the program, which is a one-month residency in Kumasi and Copenhagen respectively including research, production, a public talk, accommodation, and the possibility of showing an existing work. The programme and the selection of artists will be further developed based on the evaluation of this first run.