JOJO ABDALLAH: PSY-TECH” (“Where Psychology meets Technology”)

Compound House Gallery presents the exhibition JOJO ABDALLAH: PSY-TECH, a solo show curated by Robin Riskin that explores the intersection between psychology, technology, and art. The expression Psy-Technology is borrowed from Abdallah’s hand-painted signboard for the Occupation Therapy Department where he keeps his studio at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital in Adabraka.

For the occasion of the exhibition, Abdallah’s recent and archival works in painting and mixed media are presented at the Ghana National Museum in Accra and mediated by a loose community of curatorial griots.

Abdallah’s scenes of Ghanaian cultural, political, and spiritual life act as the point of departure for how to collectively narrate content at the intersection of history and fantasy. His paintings of psychiatric hospitals, ceremonial traditions, natural sciences, and syncretic spiritualities render actual peoples, places, and practices through fictional and frictional combinations.

The collection of fantasy history paintings tells stories of nation-building; tradition-keeping; growth and believing; hope, horror, and healing. The idea of art pervades Abdallah’s communal and cosmic worlds: doctors are artists, plumbers are artists, and sites of trade and travel are dedicated to crafts, culture, and cuisine.

– Excerpt of CURATORIAL PROCESSING by ROBIN RISKIN

Download the press release for full curatorial text