11.09.2025 – 01.02.2026
In her paintings, Hawa Ali Awanle Ayiboro explores the lives of two marginalised groups of young women in Accra: the Kayayei girls – porters who have migrated from northern Ghana – and the Girly Girls, sex workers on Oxford Street. In her stories, Ayiboro scrutinises issues such as power, gender, survival and agency from a female perspective. She challenges Ghana’s entrenched social norms and raises critical questions about class, morality and representation.
At the centre of Ayiboro’s work is an intense tension: the roles of these women are bound by social taboos that restrict them, yet they create spaces for survival and self-realisation. Her opulent, Baroque-inspired settings also draw provocative parallels to the history of the Baroque, whose opulence and decadence were inextricably linked to the colonial exploitation of Africa, including the Gold Coast.
AWANLE AYIBORO HAWA ALI – Fine feathers don’t make fine birds
11.09.2025 – 01.02.2026
OK Linz
OK-Platz 1, 4020 Linz
www.ooekultur.at
