Artist Birthday: Paa Joe

Apprenticed to a coffin-maker at the age of 12, Paa Joe became one of the most honored Ghanaian coffin or abebuu adekai (“proverb boxes”) artists of his generation.

Artist Birthday for 21 November: Paa Joe (Joseph Tetteh-Ashong, born 1945, Ga People, Ghana)

Paa Joe, Nike-sneaker Coffin, 1990, painted wood, metal, fabric, 73.7 x 203.21 x 57.2 cm Brooklyn Museum, © 2025 Paa Joe (BMA-3286)

This Nike-themed coffin may have been designed for someone who enjoyed jogging. Like many of the coffin artists, Ashong regrets that a work of art that requires so much attention is seen by only a few people and then buried in the ground. The connection of the coffin as a home in the afterlife, and the exquisite detail in the carving of worldly goods has a distinctly eerie similarity to the ancient Egyptian emphasis on physical objects perpetuating service to the deceased in the next world.

Background

The tradition among the Ga People of Ghana of fantasy (or novelty) coffins is one that began to flourish in the 1960s, particularly in Accra, the capital. The tradition related to the genre was that of a furniture artist who created elaborate chairs for people on special occasions, sculpting them into an object that represented the person's job or family. When one customer commissioned a chair sculpted like a giant cocoa pod -- a major Ghanaian crop -- the customer died before it was finished so it became his coffin. To the present day, tourist buses bring people to see these coffin shops where beautifully hand-carved coffins take months of work because of the attention to detail.

The Ga People believe that the deceased go on to an afterlife. Since the coffin is thought to become their home thereafter, they prefer the coffins to be beautiful. Another theory is that the bright colors and arresting shapes hinder the deceased's spirit from haunting body or its friends and relatives, by intimidating it with the beautiful coffin.

Paa Joe (Joseph Tetteh-Ashong) was born in Ghana. Encouraged by his mother, at 15 he started a ten-year apprenticeship as a coffin artist under his uncle, the famed coffin maker Kane Kwei (1924-1992 in Teshie. Paa Joe started his own coffin studio in Nungua in 1976. Ashong's vocation is a combination of carpenter and sculptor. Like many coffin artists, he is an consumate perfectionist in carving, and produces highly intricate sculptures for his coffins. The tradition of sculpture is strong in every pre-western African culture.

Correlations to Davis programs: A Community Connection 2E, Unit 8.5; Discovering Art History 4E, Chapter 4.8; Exploring Visual Design 4E, Chapter 9 Contrast -- Studio Experience; Davis Collections -- African Art by Artist Name/Culture N-Z