ArteEast is pleased to present an interview with artist Manutcher Kwame Milani as part of our Artist Spotlight series.
Manutcher Kwame Milani (b. 1996, Accra, Ghana) is a painter and carpet maker based in Zurich. His work stands out through an abundance of symbols, dazzling colors, and ornaments. Traditional Ghanaian Adinkra symbols and Persian carpets have influenced the artist since his childhood. The artist reads his carpets and paintings as moods, which he often connotes with music. He studied at the University of the Arts, Zurich and the Hochschule Luzern. Milani’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions, including: LOOPY, Bild 8005, Zurich (2021); Fading into obscurity, Ballostar Mobile, Bern (2019); Full Auto Fill In with Marius Steiger, Lokal Int, Biel (2017) His work has also been shown in selected group exhibitions, including: How Did I Get Here, Oldenburgerstrasse, Berlin (2021); Werkschau 2021, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2021); Traverse, Sandy Brown, Berlin (2021); OVR, Arcadia Missa, London (2021); Worshbourg, WeissFalk, Basel (2020); Summer of Suspense, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich (2020)




ArteEast: Can you tell us about your work in general and the main themes you return to in your practice?
Manutcher Kwame Milani: In general, I like to begin with how I began to make art. It began in my teens when I was roaming between different schools, not knowing what I want and where I want to go in life. I was a rather creative child, and I did a lot of graffiti until not long ago. It started very intuitively with making drawings or doodles during school. I was very persistent and managed to get into the art school in Zurich at the age of 19. Now I think it’s a very young age to enter art school. Through school, I learnt mostly how to think about work in a constructive way and understand more why I do what I do. Most of my works there were very random but necessary to find my niche. It was one of the most interesting times of my life.
After a couple of years of developing a certain consciousness in my work, I was able to put the pieces together of my references and why I do what I do. I’m strongly influenced by my heritage – Ghana / Iran. I grew up in Accra, Ghana, and my grandfather was an Iranian carpet dealer whose business was based in Zurich. Since childhood, I was abundantly surrounded by ornaments, patterns, and textiles.
In my first solo show at Ballostar Mobile in Bern (2019), the main theme of the show was a visual experience. I painted a very trippy mural with an airbrush over all the gallery walls. It was an experience that alternated between eyes in focus and out of focus. I mention this since for me, the visual effect and impact of my work in that show will always be important to me. I reuse and redraw patterns and ornaments throughout all my works. My heritage is visible by simply looking at my works. A theme or a concept I also return to often is to constantly reinvent myself and to learn something new that challenges me. I’m not a big fan of stagnancy.
ArteEast: You are currently pursuing your second BFA in Textile Design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. What is the experience of being in school alongside having an active fine arts practice? What led you to pursue this program when you already had a professional practice?
MKM: For one reason, it’s the same thing as I mentioned above with challenging myself to learn something new. But the other reason is that one year after graduating from art school, I wanted to expand my perspective and diversify my skills with textiles. I found myself asking, “What if a career in Fine Arts doesn’t work out?” I was thinking of my future. Making money through art is also the wrong approach to art making, and so I thought of learning something that I already had a passion for, which was textiles. I’m now in my fourth semester out of six and honestly, I’m a bit tired of the bureaucracy and the deadlines we have–it’s just not my thing. It’s not comparable to my Bachelors in Fine Art. I’ve learned a lot though, but now would be the moment for me to graduate and continue with my own work. All in all, it’s very interesting, also very special and at times, strange for me to be the only black guy in my cohort. I had to relearn how to work with my inspirations and how to make my processes more visual for others. I’m also thinking of engaging more with design or fashion since it could be a good fit with what I’ve learned.
ArteEast: What are the inspirations behind the motifs, shapes and colors in your work?
MKM: My inspirations vary between different works and phases of life that I’ve been through, but the core of it is my heritage. It’s an ongoing exploration where I try to create my own language out of Iranian carpet designs and Ghanaian textiles. References always change, because it’s more than just my heritage. Sometimes I prefer to begin work and see where it goes and after that make the connections. What has also influenced me a lot is graffiti. When I used to spray paint a lot between 17 and 23, we were obsessed with anti-style. Classic graffiti as we know it was out. Anti-style is a more free and artsy kind of hippie, or it could be a very ugly style of graffiti, which was coming up more and more during those years. That certainly shaped my way of thinking with colors and form.
ArteEast: Tell us about your extended stay in Accra in 2022, when you set up a studio in the shipping container. Elaborate on your experience working in Ghana for the first time. What were you producing there?
MKM: I wanted to take a break from Zurich during the summer, and go somewhere for a couple of months. My mother has a house in Accra which was empty at the time, and it was the perfect opportunity for me to go. I wasn’t able to work a lot in my studio during my first year and I felt the urge to ship down my studio to that house during my stay. Through a friend, I could send down all the contents of my studio by boat for a reasonable sum. It was the first time I went to Ghana for such a long period of time after moving to Switzerland with my family in 2007. It was also the first time I went there alone. I was excited to be close to where a big part of my inspiration sprouts from. I would regularly go to the big markets where they sold textiles and wander around in the wilder parts of the city, taking pictures like the worst of tourists. I searched for color combinations, patterns, or whatever I felt was interesting and went back to the studio to paint. At the beginning of my stay, I was invited to have a solo show, although I never expected the opportunity, and was very honored to exhibit in my home country. The opening, the whole experience, and even the role of an artist in Ghana is so different from what I was used to in Europe. People value art so much more and in a completely different way than in the Western world. I had to come out of my comfort zone of being shy and secretive, like every other Swiss artist, waiting for Bruno Bischofberger (a renowned Swiss art dealer and collector). There are so many exciting upcoming projects and interesting crowds in Ghana. It feels as though it’s the beginning of something new there and I definitely want to go back soon and get to know the scene more.
ArteEast: Tell us about your ongoing series, Cat Tree, and your overall approach to textiles.
MKM: I’m coming back to the point I mentioned before, that I try to learn new things, or challenge myself with new projects. The Cat Tree series is a good example of that as well. When we think of carpets we mostly think of square-shaped pieces on the floor with fringes, aligned to the architecture, under a table. My idea was to use the carpet as a medium but also to change the display–to make it sculptural. It was very simple. The first thought I had was to make a pillar and wrap a carpet around it. Textiles are one of the first human-made objects for protection and warmth, and they are so diverse in all cultures. We are in contact with textiles during our whole life. We all take our time to choose our clothing which defines a lot about us, and I feel that in an exhibition, people have a closer relation to the material. It conveys a more humble feeling.
ArteEast: What and who are some of your major creative influences, and why?
MKM: Some artists I really like are Antwan Horfe, Ida Ekblad, Rosemarie Trockel and Hilma af Klint. I also collect books of ornaments and symbols. I make copies of things I think could be useful to me and put them in a file in my cloud. Why I collect them and look at them is because I am fond of creating images or paintings or patterns I’ve never seen before, and they enrich my knowledge about art and design.
ArteEast: What are you currently working on, and do you have any shows or projects upcoming in 2023-2024?
MKM: At the moment I’m not really working on any pieces, instead, I’m often in the workshops at my school knitting scarfs or doing screen-prints on t-shirts. I’m waiting for the summer to come so that I can go back to my studio to work. I will be graduating next year and more work from school will arrive. I haven’t planned any shows yet for this year, but at the end of 2024, I’m planning a big trip which will end in Ghana with an exhibition. That’s all I’m going to say for now. 🙂
— Interview by Lila Nazemian
MANUTCHER KWAME MILANI ONLINE:
Instagram: @manutcher_