Its was beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday when we went to see the finale of the art project Paa Joe & The Lion at Clumber Park. I’ve never been to Clumber before but its a huge country park in the north part of Sherwood Forest.
Paa Joe has been in residence there throughout May carving a fantasy lion coffin. Paa Joe is a Ghanaian artist & crafts man who has been making coffins for many years. Mainly they used for their intended purpose, seen by very few and buried with their inhabitant. The residence at Clumber ended with an enactment of a traditional Ghanian funeral and saw the lion final sailing away across the lake into the afterlife.
The event was being filmed and their will follow a documentary about Paa Joe, his life and tradition. The performance included a drum troupe, fire jugglers and students from NTU with huge puppets of lost spirits. Paa Joes son, Jacob told the story of the process as the procession made it’s way though the grounds and down to the lake. There were lots of great masks and very committed performers. It was very enjoyable and I got some pretty decent pictures and also some interesting sound recordings which I’ll use in my new song set.
This artist really got involved .
This is Paa Joe, watching the proceedings….
These are puppets made by Theatre Design students from NTU. More of these on the #HipstamaticEyeCandy page.
And this last one is of the Lion sailing away into the afterlife.
…..and this is trailer for the documentary. Looking forward to seeing this.
adrian4 
You are a remarkable individual, Adrian. What I like about your blog is your zen-like appreciation of so many aspects of life–your children, music, non-art art, African art, classical art, interesting places, interesting people. You are incredibly alive to so much of life. I, in my old age, am open to less and less and thus really appreciate your openness to so much.
g.