9780500278390

Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed:

• 30 Day Return Policy
• Bookseller Guarantee
• Privacy & Security Policy

Funerary art has many expressions, but seldom is it as eye-catching and surprising as among the Ga, the dominant people of the Ghanaian capital Accra and its region. Here, a remarkable contemporary folk art of coffin-building has developed, combining remembrance, respect, humor, and celebration. The coffin may take almost any form--onion, cow, fishing boat, car, eagle--reflecting the occupation, status, or particular attribute of the deceased. Thierry Secretan's superb color photographs record a wide variety of these sculptural masterpieces. He shows the making of the coffins, the funeral rites, and the burial, quite literally from creation to the grave. Lively accompanying texts explain the history and background of the subject and introduce the main protagonists: the artist-craftsmen, the mourners, and, not least, the central characters whose souls are going to join their ancestors in such an apt and splendid fashion.

"In this eye-catching book, Thierry Secretan couples a discussion of the art form's evolution with superb color photographs of the numerous coffins--which as the images show, are striking sculptural pieces."

Threepenny Review, May/june 1996

Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa: Search Results