Richard Mensah: On visual storytelling in Black culture

By Pauline Odhiambo

Before launching his career in the arts, Richard Mensah would often sketch on post-it notes during his lunch breaks at a nuclear energy facility in the United Kingdom.

When a colleague posted the sketches online in 2016, Mensah was surprised by the many positive comments and reactions that flooded his timeline.

Naturally-gifted in the arts, he had until that point put his talent on the backburner, choosing to focus on his career in chemical engineering.

“When I was growing up in Ghana, storytelling as an art form was a huge thing, but for some reason, I always saw myself more of a scientist than a storyteller,” the figurative artist tells TRT Afrika.

“I now realise I like storytelling more than I like being a scientist,” adds Mensah who was listed in 2020 among 25 emerging artists in the UK by a Mayfair gallery.

Salon stories

Figurative art describes any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world and particularly to the human figure, according to The Artling platform.

In his childhood, Mensah would often paint on the walls of salons and barbershops in his neighbourhood to earn some money.

“By the age of 5 or 6, I was painting on kiosks and getting paid in sweets and candies, and when I got older, my friends in school would also buy some of my sketches,” the London-based artist recalls.

“I saved quite a bit of money from selling sketches and painting on salon walls, he says.

“At some point, I started hiding the money I made from my parents because they didn’t really see art as a viable career.”

When he moved to the UK in 2002 for his master’s studies in environment pollution and control, Mensah never imaged art would once again take centre-stage in his life.

Ties that bind

“It may have taken me nearly sixteen years to get back to art, but I know it never really left me” the 46-year-old states.

Among his many paintings is a series titled ‘Tangled Embarace’ which features images of ropes in capturing concepts of love.

“The love between Black couples is not talked about enough largely because the enslavement of Black people made it difficult for them to show affection to each other,” Mensah, who often finds inspiration from history books, explains.

During the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved people were often chained together at the ankle or tied together by ropes around their necks.

“But in Ghana, ropes are a symbol of strength, and my intention was to portray that in my art by showing how Black people are still bound together but in a more loving way,” the artist explains.

“The spirit of love among us cannot be broken, and we are tighter and stronger than ever.”

His painting depicting Yaa Asantewaa – an African woman who led a major rebellion to defend the Ashanti Kingdom that is now part of modern-day Ghana – was selected for exhibition at the JD Malat Gallery.

More of his oil paintings have been showcased in Japan, France and South Africa among other nations.

‘Black British’

But Mensah's passion for telling the stories of Black people often stems from his own brush with racism.

His painting ‘Taken’ was inspired by the discrimination he faced specifically in his earlier years as a student in the UK.

“I’ve been stopped countless times by police but I remember one incident when I stopped while leaving the train station based on the suspicion of carrying drugs,” Mensah recalls.

“I was more or less pinned to the wall while my belongings were searched. They asked me many questions that had more to do with immigration than drugs.”

When no drugs were found, Mensah says the policemen left one by one, none of them apologizing for the humiliating incident.

“I felt as if something had been taken from me, which is why the male subject in my painting has the Union Jack stripped away from his body” he adds.

“If you look closely at the background of that painting, you will notice more conversations about what it means to be Black and British.”

‘Who Gets to Swim?’

From his series titled ‘Reflections’, Mensah further explores the complex relationship many black people have with water even in contemporary times.

“This series is a reflection of the progress black people have made in accessing previously-prohibited spaces,” he says. “One of the pieces that is in this series was about black people in sports like water polo.”

“This particular piece was inspired by someone of Ghanaian heritage based in the US who now works with African youth on the continent, encouraging them to take up water sports not only for their survival but also to change limiting narratives about Black people and water,” Mensah tells TRT Afrika while recalling the thousands of migrant Africans who have in recent times lost their lives while crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Authentic art

Another water-themed painting titled ‘Lost of Self’ is a clarion call to live in the present and to savour the simple but often-overlooked pleasures of daily life.

“Being here on earth means that we get to spend some years on this planet before transitioning to another,” he states.

“The bridge in this painting symbolises the connection between these two realities, whereas the musical instruments are a reminder to turn towards the beauty of authentic experiences at all times.”

His advice to aspiring artists:

“Fortunately, social media has removed some of the gatekeepers of art, so just get your work out there and let people see what you can do,” he concludes.

“As long as you’re authentically creating, the universe will work out the rest.”

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