crazinisT ArtisT
Kumasi, ghana
Born 1981 in Ho, Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] works internationally but lives in Kumasi, Ghana. sHit is a multidisciplinary “artivist”, founder and artistic director of perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) which aimed at promoting exchange between international and local artists, activists, researchers, curators, and thinkers. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalized groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, sHit employs sHits own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video, and installations, ‘life-and-live-art’ confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, social justice, violence, objectification, internalized oppression, anti blackness, systemic indoctrination and many more.
In 2006, crazinisT artisT graduated as a professional teacher from the then E.P Teacher Training college, Amedzofe (College of Education) after which sHit worked for Ghana Education Service until 2010. sHit also got a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts - BFA (Painting) in 2014 and MFA (AbD) in 2017 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
crazinisT has performed across the globe and featured in several selected exhibitions and festivals including Festival Arte Negra - FAN (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2019), Chale Wote 2019, FITRIO (Rio Preto, Brazil, 2019) White Out (NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, 2019), Interval 10 (Essen Germany, 2019) Slow Sunday (London UK, 2018), Mindelact (Cape Verde, 2018), Performance Reihe Neu-oerlikon (Zurich, Switzerland, 2018), Time Bomb (New York USA, 2018), Lost and found (Paradiso, Amsterdam, 2018), Passing Through—Acts of Radical Empathy (Solo show Gallery 1957, Ghana, 2018) Past Tell” (Alliance Francaise, Kumasi, 2018), Para-Óther (Chale Wote, 2018), Rituals of Becoming, (Solo show Gallery 1957, Ghana, 2017), Orderly Disorderly (Accra, Ghana, 2017), Beyond Rituals, Villa Waldberta (Munich Germany 2017), ‘if you love me ...’ (Kumasi, Ghana, 2016), ‘Cornfields in Accra’, (Ghana, 2016), Bone 19 (Switzerland, 2016), Silence between the Lines (Kumasi, Ghana, 2015), the Gown must go to Town ( Ghana, 2015), the Return of the Slaves (Elmina Castle Ghana, 2015), Protest (Hazard Gallery, South Africa, 2015), TERRITOIRE DE CRÉATION
(Lome, Togo, 2015), African Electronic, (Chale Wote Art Festival Ghana, 2015), the KNUST End of Year Exhibition, Nubuke Foundation (Accra, Ghana, 2014). crazinisT artisT has also been featured in several, publications and magazines such as the I-D Vice London, I-D Vice Dutch, Financial times, King Kong Magazine, CCQ London, Maimi Rails, ‘Freeflowingvisuals’, TRT WORD Film Documentary, This is Africa, Art Ghana, Lost At E Minor, CNN, The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Horizonte da Cena, Radio FRO etc.
Blacksitioning Workshop
On Friday, February 26th at 10 AM PST (1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT), Join #RadicalBlackFemme artist-in-residence, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a.k.a. crazinisT artisT, for an immersive virtual workshop. LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS.
