Die in Ghana geborene Künstlerin Nana Asase, die den größten Teil ihrer Kindheit und Jugend in Deutschland verbrachte, lebt und arbeitet heute in New York, dem Wahlort ihrer Film und Foto-Kunst. Nachdem ich im Folgenden zwei Ihrer Kurzfilme zeige, lasse ich sie selbst zu Wort kommen, um sich und ihre Arbeit vorzustellen.

The Last Train to Lido:

Mephisto and I (the trip):

„My first love has always been literature, and its ability to transform mood and setting simply by a string of words, often revealing subtleties that are like little hidden treasures. Yet in expressing myself, I find that this medium falls short, at times. My work exhibits my deepest most intimate feelings that transcend verbal barriers, but also how I perceive the way others show their emotions. I want to portray an array of human emotions, in a contemporary way, with simple modern tools.

My interest in photography was sparked after a brief flirt with experimental film-making. I fell in love with my conventional point and shoot camera, with which I completed two mood-heavy film projects. To me, capturing the mood was essential to understanding the subtleties, which were embedded within the films, and it is in turn the mood that sets the tone in my photography. Unlike in my paintings, in which I like to utilize exuberant bold color constellations, the emotions that my photography and films express are subdued and often dark or melancholic. I like the idea of a subject that appears to be passive, a subject who has an ever present sense of longing and often, a loneliness or oneness against the world as a result of being misunderstood.

In terms of my photography, I begin a project by assessing my environment – the light, the arrangement of elements surrounding me and how those can be transformed to set the correct mood. I manipulate my setting – a process that makes me feel in control. But no matter how empowered I feel during this process, I always experience a breakdown point, during which I am humbled by my own work. It’s that moment that I work for, one which precipitates an extra push and a burst of emotion within me. I try to translate this into my work.

When people see my work, I want them to feel the connection with the subject’s emotions or at least process the emotions that are depicted through the visual medium. Although our Weltanschauung differs from person to person, I think that art can draw the cognitive, social and cultural perceptions to one unified point in a subtle manner. My worldview is derived from my unique experience comprised of my Ghanaian, German, and American upbringing. It is my aim to translate this experience into a visual language that transcends cognitive, social and cultural barriers.“

Nana Asase