Edward Prah, A Play in Gold

Kwamo, Kumasi, Ghana

8 February - 23 February 2024

The project explores the concept of disco balls, known for reflecting light, by designing objects that similarly project light outward into space. Influenced by deteriorated photographic materials, the project reimagines architectural space.

A Play in Gold translates the visual elements of Prah’s images into forms that emit intangible projections into shared spaces. Using specially hammered aluminium composite panels, textured round patterns are created on their reflective surfaces. When illuminated, these panels cast ethereal projections onto architectural surfaces, objects, and viewers, continuously transforming the spatial experience.

  • The projections can be interpreted variously as caustics, brain neurons or the Milky Way. They can also be understood as tangible references to the imperfections seen in aged photographic materials, offering metaphorical and aesthetic allure. This creation aims to provide fleeting moments of tranquil, uplifting respite, offering a reprieve from the daily pressures and routines of life.

    Situated at the heart of a garden within a private residential property, a greenhouse was reimagined as a disco venue for the exhibition, activating the space and its surroundings with entrancing sounds and light projections. The public is drawn to the exhibition site by the sounds emanating from the space. Collaborators were welcomed to contribute flashes from their smartphones, forming a shared and personal engagement while spinning and manipulating the objects. This interaction continuously influences the space, keeping it in a perpetual state of transformation through ongoing activities.

    The exhibition includes sonic components with an audible playlist of Ghanaian Highlife music, a cultural blend that combines jazz syncopation, horns, and indigenous Akan rhythms, playing throughout its duration. The playlist, obtained from Apple Music, an ad-free streaming music service, is played through a speaker. This musical selection is inspired by one of the primary image sources: family photo albums from Ghanaian households, particularly from that era. The music livens up the space, encouraging the audience to engage by dancing to its rhythm. The sonic archive associated with the exhibition iterates the Ghanaian culture of the mid to late twentieth century, featuring songs that underscore various social and political concerns.

Installation Views

Photos by: Edem Dedi, Emmanuel K. Prah & Edward Prah

Video Documentation

A Play in Gold, 2024.

Aluminium Composite Panels, aluminium pipes, spotlights, locomotive light and metal chains. Dimensions variable

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