Paa Joe’s Elephant Fantasy Coffin

by Mike Creedon

Paa Joe is Ghanaian artist who works meticulously on his hand carved fantasy coffins.  His elephant coffin uses soft and warm shades of browns.  The size of the coffin is realistic, it could easily house an actual human body.  The golden backdrop and lighting of the exhibit also nicely contrasted with piece, adding warmth and drawing your attention to the coffin.

The elephant’s body maintains a solid repetition of vertical black lines and white circles within those lines.  The coffin falls into most of the criteria listed in “The Visual Language of African Art”.  The object clearly has a function, as it has the ability to house and honor a dead body.  The craftmanship of the piece is highly valued as it is completely hand carved.  Visibility of line and form is clearly portrayed with its strong edges and smoothly polished body.  Realistically, the head of the elephant could be larger, but for the emotional proportion the body is clearly the focus (as it houses the human).

Most African works of art follow the rule that persons should on be depicted in the prime of their life, that’s why I believe the coffin is meant to show liveliness even in death.  Security and safety is another factor in African art, the coffin offers two forms of protections.  First, there is the obvious in that the coffin is meant to hold a body.  The second is the elephant, in that an elephant is a massive creature in the real world and could offer protection in a spiritual realm as well.

The craftmanship in the piece is immaculate and it introduced me to the art of fantasy coffins.  It is quite original, at least to me as I had never seen one before.  The colors are well done and fit the elephant very nicely.  Most importantly, I believe it properly represents the artist’s homeland.  If someone was to ask me where the piece originated, my first guess would be Africa.  Would I buy this work?  I doubt it.  As much as I love it, I doubt I’d have anywhere to properly showcase and show respect to the art.  If there was an area though, I would immediately buy the piece.  The piece is great to analyze for the liveliness of the elephant and that it is also meant to harbor the dead.