Ghana carpenter Kane Quaye added a new dimension to his village’s funeral tradition when he built a playful, artfully decorated coffin in the shape of a canoe for his dying uncle, who had been a fisherman. The coffin made such a splash in the village–where the dead are bid farewell in the Ghanaian tradition of lavish funeral processions of music and dancing–that others began placing orders. That was more than 30 years ago. Over the years Quaye’s coffins became more elaborate and more in demand.
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Many of the coffins in “A Life Well Lived: Fantasy Coffins of Kane Quaye,” an exhibit opening Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center, are so brightly colored and fanciful that it’s difficult to discern their true purpose; they look like giant children’s toys. Each is designed to capture the essence of the person who died–subjects range from a hen for a nurturing mother to a field of onions for a farmer to a sand-brushed lobster, complete with antennae, for a fisherman. The coffins are also shaped after Western objects, like airplanes and cars–deviations from traditional African depictions of animals and figures.
“The coffins in Ghana are utilized, and these [in the catalog] are art–and that’s a whole other matter,” says Silverman. “Although you never know–I suppose if someone here wanted to be buried in a cigarette case, for example, they could write in to the workshop and that’s what they would make.”
