Craftsman to build trademark coffin

This month artist Paa Joe left Ghana for only the second time in his life and arrived in Clumber Park to take up a residency at the National Trust site. While there he will build his trademark lion coffin, one of the most powerful and important symbols of Africa.

During the residency, City Arts will run workshops for schools, mask-making with Stephen Jon, poetry with Panya Banjoko and music with Michael Davis.

Paa Joe is a master craftsman, and the grandfather of the fantasy coffin trade. Since the age of 16 he has been crafting beautiful coffins that represent the lives of the people for whom they were made, such as a Coca Cola bottle for a street vendor, or a lion for the head of a family.

He has produced thousands of coffins, the majority of which now lie deep under the ground.

In 2008 Paa Joe was forced to move from his workshop in the centre of Accra to his storage hut two hours away.

His Ghanaian customers did not follow and the tourists stopped passing by. Now he wants his work to be recognised all over the world and is aiming to put on an exhibition of his work in the UK.

Some of his work has already been seen in the British Museum, London, and Brooklyn Museum, New York.

While the lion-shaped coffin is built by Paa Joe and his son Jacob, Nottingham-based filmmaker Benjamin Wigley will make a documentary about it called Paa Joe And The Lion.

On May 30 Paa Joe and the coffin will relocate for one day to Rufford Country Park so visitors can watch him work there and take part in creative workshops.

On June 1 the coffin will be celebrated in a grand finale, featuring musicians called the Sabar Soundsystem, at Clumber Park, featuring art, dance, music and theatre, with African-inspired food available. The event will be filmed.

The lion coffin will be paraded round the grounds and cross the lake with giant puppets and a colliery band in tow.

The residency and finale are all open to the public.