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Lot Essay
Godfried Donkor is a multidisciplinary British-Ghanainan artist whose work examines the charged socio-historical relationship between Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Donkor mines imagery from religious, archival and pop-cultural sources to suggest and map alternative histories. These sources often exist at opposing ends of hierarchies of power. The fantasy worlds presented by Donkor depict an accelerated utopian creolisation which in turn highlights the persistence of dominant hierarchies built upon racial divisions.
Donkor’s photographic series Jamestown Masquerade was created as a response to 19th century English explorer Thomas Bowdich’s illustrated account of his diplomatic mission to the Asante Kingdom in Ghana in 1817 to secure peace with its ruler, Osei Bonsu. Whilst Bowdich’s narrative is noted as painting an observant and positive picture of the Asante kingdom at the height of its power and splendour, he remained an instrument of the state apparatus of control. His mission—to ostensibly secure peace with the Asante empire—was part of a wider plan to annex the entire Gold Coast under the influence of the British Empire.
In Donkor’s photographs, masks obscure the face of the wearer in the same way as the true motivations of Bowdich and Bonsu were obscured. The notion of the masquerade differs across cultures: in West Africa it continues to occupy as prominent a role as it did in Venice in the 19th century. Created in collaboration with the designer Allan Davids, Donkor’s series engages in a playful, theatrical creolisation: the masks and costumes the models wear are inspired by Venetian masked balls, but fabricated out of traditional Ghanaian Kente cloth.
In Jamestown Masquerade VI we see a man and a woman sitting in front of a dilapidated bay window and balustrade. Although the figures sit closely there is a Machiavellian energy to their interaction, suggesting the interplay of power relations taking precedent over any kind of honest or authentic association.
Jamestown Masquerade XII shows five women at a distance gazing imperiously through their extravagant masks, seemingly interrogating the viewer’s rank and status. In the background the commercial fishing boats evoke Venetian gondolas.
Donkor represented Ghana at the 2001 Venice Biennale. His work is in the collection of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, and has been shown at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Belvedere, Vienna; and the Studio Museum, New York. He was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at Gallery 1957, London, in 2021.
Donkor’s photographic series Jamestown Masquerade was created as a response to 19th century English explorer Thomas Bowdich’s illustrated account of his diplomatic mission to the Asante Kingdom in Ghana in 1817 to secure peace with its ruler, Osei Bonsu. Whilst Bowdich’s narrative is noted as painting an observant and positive picture of the Asante kingdom at the height of its power and splendour, he remained an instrument of the state apparatus of control. His mission—to ostensibly secure peace with the Asante empire—was part of a wider plan to annex the entire Gold Coast under the influence of the British Empire.
In Donkor’s photographs, masks obscure the face of the wearer in the same way as the true motivations of Bowdich and Bonsu were obscured. The notion of the masquerade differs across cultures: in West Africa it continues to occupy as prominent a role as it did in Venice in the 19th century. Created in collaboration with the designer Allan Davids, Donkor’s series engages in a playful, theatrical creolisation: the masks and costumes the models wear are inspired by Venetian masked balls, but fabricated out of traditional Ghanaian Kente cloth.
In Jamestown Masquerade VI we see a man and a woman sitting in front of a dilapidated bay window and balustrade. Although the figures sit closely there is a Machiavellian energy to their interaction, suggesting the interplay of power relations taking precedent over any kind of honest or authentic association.
Jamestown Masquerade XII shows five women at a distance gazing imperiously through their extravagant masks, seemingly interrogating the viewer’s rank and status. In the background the commercial fishing boats evoke Venetian gondolas.
Donkor represented Ghana at the 2001 Venice Biennale. His work is in the collection of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, and has been shown at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Belvedere, Vienna; and the Studio Museum, New York. He was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at Gallery 1957, London, in 2021.