DANASION AKOBE
Danasion Akobe( b. 1971, Akisiamauw, Suriname) is an expert in a Maroon practice of wood carving known as Tembe Art. Trained in these traditional techniques, his work includes traces of several Maroon groups. Akobe has contributed to various projects of internationally renowned artists, including designs by Dutch Design that were presented in the 2010 exhibition Sure Suriname in The Hague, the Netherlands. Inspired by the knowledge of his grandmother, he builds on the techniques of Tembe Art that he was taught.
Akobe’ s painted wood panel is adorned with curving, intertwined lines, traditionally created to connect the past, present, and future through the process called paw a paw den doe—“ line-on-line with content” in the Maroon Saramaccan language. The artist refers to his personal detailing patterns as“ Malohkoh Lining.” The practice is named after his foremother Ma Lohkoh, who was captured in western Ghana and enslaved on a plantation in Suriname, which she fled with her two sisters, thus preserving their African heritage. In the Amazonia Açu exhibition, Akobe shows a dialogue between Saramaccan and Aucanisi Maroon traditions. Not only does he play with culture’ s ability to adapt, but through his praxis he also celebrates collectivity. While Akobe intertwines contemporary and traditional art, he entangles labor, knowledge, materiality, and technology with cultural complexities.( MIGUEL KEERVELD)
36