Joseph Awuah-Darko, who also goes by Okuntakinte, is a 28-year-old visual artist from Ghana with a unique way of expressing his emotions through his art.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 16, Joseph uses his artwork to navigate the highs and lows of his mental health. In his recent interview with BBC, the artist revealed that he used his latest project, “How’s Your Day Going?” to visually capture that.
How Did Joseph Awuah-Darko Get Into This Type of Art?
Joseph’s creations started with a simple spreadsheet. Initially, he used it to manage his art supplies budget, but then he thought of using it to track his moods. According to the BBC, the Ashesi University alumnus assigns a specific color to each hour of his day. This color represents whatever emotion he is feeling at the time.
Pastel blue for when he is feeling positive and red for when he is feeling extremely depressed. Joseph says that this method helps him visually represent his emotions as well as monitor them. He also added that sometimes he carefully selects colors to reflect the feelings he is having of a particular place. Such as Brussels, where he currently lives, he associates the place with the color, Teal. The deep blue-green shade shows that his time there is filled with both positive and negative emotions.
What Is The Artist’s Biography?
Joseph Awuah-Darko was born on 31 August 1996 in Middlesex, London. Following his family’s move to Ghana, he began leaning into music and abstract art. He drew inspiration from the likes of Fela Kuti and Amy Winehouse. After studying business administration and liberal arts in college, he tried his hand at music. Releasing song after song. One of them, ‘Melanin Girls,’ which was released in 2016, was one of the most talked-about songs of that year in Ghana and South Africa.
In 2017, he helped start a non-profit organization called The Agbogblo Shine Initiative. This organization works with several local and international foundations to address e-waste issues. Sometimes they recycle such products into art pieces or other sustainable materials and gift them to schools. Two years later, he made it into Forbes’ “30 under 30” list for his impactful contributions to the Contemporary Art sector.
Now with his UK solo exhibition underway, Joseph may want his artwork to serve two purposes. Not only to reflect what his emotions look like but to also promote mental health awareness. His almost systematic approach to coping with bipolar disorder, may inspire others to discover their own safe methods of managing mental health.
You can view Joseph Awuah-Darko’s exhibition “How’s Your Day Going?” at Ed Cross Fine Art in London. The event will be running until the 19th of October, 2024.
