Unveiling the Magic of Neglect: A Reflection on Brooks Anne Robinson’s ‘Reality’

Art review by Vanessa Naa Vanderpuye, Winner of the 2023 KAAR Prize

Editor’s Note: This review was the winner of the maiden KAAR Prize instituted earlier this year at African University College of Communications (AUCC) by Konyo Museum of Ghanaian Art, organizers of the Accra Visual Arts Week (AVIEW). The annual Korkor Amarteifio Art Reviewing Prize (or KAAR Prize) is for the best single review written by a student about the festival or other art exhibition in Accra Metropolis during the month of April.

I have often viewed artists to have this sense of magic about them. It is indeed magical to be able to pick up a pen, brush, or even a piece of dirt and create something so beautiful and awe inspiring. Whether it is nature, a god, a person or a series of events from which an artist gathers inspiration, art knows no bounds as a medium of expression. Always provoking thoughts and emotions that can be overwhelming at times. But the good kind of overwhelming though.

Like with artist Brooks Anne Robinson’s photograph Reality that was on display during the art exhibition held at African University College of Communications (AUCC), in Adabraka, Accra, as part of this year’s Accra Visual Arts Week (AVIEW) organized by Konyo Museum of African Art

Brooks Anne Robinson’s Reality was a simple photograph of a worn out wall. Nothing special. All her artworks on display, except one, were of random plain walls you would normally walk past without so much as a second glance. It wasn’t until after Brooks explained passion her for photography – specifically wall photography – that I understood and appreciated those wall pictures. Especially the photograph titled Reality.

“I shot that picture in Congo, Brazil. I was walking around a neighbourhood. I was very focused on taking pictures of walls and finding so much variety and interesting things happening in walls.  It is a wall that had been used for posters over the years. It got pasted up and torn down. Pasted up and torn down. But there is no poster there now. It just struck me as an image of neglect,” Brooks had explained.

Indeed that plain looking wall took on a new perspective in my mind. It suddenly reminded me of a piece by Ghanaian photographer Henry Obimpeh of an empty discarded coffee cup on a side walk. Both photographs capture the human reality of holding unto things and people until we no longer feel they are needed. We sometimes do it unintentionally. Humans have the tendency to get bored easily. In our current world everyone is in a hurry chasing after the next big time. And we are all scared to end up like discarded walls or coffee cups.

I for one often feel left behind. There are some things I know I have neglected in my attempt to catch up with the rest of the world. That is why Brooks Anne Robinson’s Reality spoke volumes to me. For a moment, that wall and I didn’t feel so different. We understood each other. Crazy, right? But that’s the magic of art.

Apart from Reality, Brooks Anne Robinson’s collection Passages, also drew in one’s imagination. The collection consisted of photographs of passage ways from places all over Africa taken during Brook’s travels.

It makes one wonder how many people have walked down those passages. What stories did those passages carry? Stories of love, loss and hope. What specifically about those passages drew the artist in? What exactly did she see when she looked at her own art pieces? These are some questions that filled the minds of some that had the opportunity to admire Brooks work.

During her 28-year career in the American diplomatic service, Brooks Anne Robinson served mainly in Africa, where her assignments were at U.S. embassies and consulates in Accra – Ghana, Kaduna

Nigeria, Mbabane – Swaziland, and Monrovia – Liberia. She also served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC., and as Diplomat in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley.

Brooks got interested in Africa 45 years ago. She was a university student then studying art. And then she switched to African studies. She grew very interested in the challenges African countries were tackling as they became independent. Brook’s dream to do development work in Africa came through when she got offered a job in the diplomatic service, a career in which she thrived. Brooks got married to a Ghanaian and settled in Ghana.

After retiring from her diplomatic job, she found her way back to photography. She wanted to make a documentary about contemporary Africa but ended up becoming a wall photographer.

Through Brook’s photographs taken in several parts of Africa, we are able to examine the stories and secrets that walls and passages hold. It makes one look at the world differently. To think back to the things we have left behind and the things that we are chasing after.

The art exhibition was both a thrilling and educative experience, showing that even a simple photograph of a beat up wall can stir up thoughts and emotions so powerful.

Brooks Robinson sharing with students at AUCC stories about how she nurtured her passion for the art of photography.