Y1 E5: Ross Junior Owusu: Migration, Identity, Ancestorship

All images are courtesy of the artist

Ross Junior Owusu is an Artist working in Ceramics, Performance, and Mixed media. He holds a B.A in Industrial Art (Ceramic Option) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.

Ross is a Third Year MFA candidate at Wayne State University (WSU) and a Teaching Assistant, teaching Introduction to Ceramics at Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan.

Ross has been in several exhibitions including Y’ak)fa; Ruptures and Renewals in Art from Ghana and Nigeria, Fayetteville Public Library, University of Arkansas, Y’akyi Nnwa; Let’s have a conversation, Daum Museum; Sedalia Missouri, the Todd Art Gallery-Mid-south Tennessee University and Ceramics 2024 at the Materia Gallery in Core city, Detroit. Ross is the 2024-2025 Thomas C. Rumble Graduate Fellowship Awardee, Wayne State University, a 2023 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Multicultural Fellowship Fellow, The 2024 Dr. Judith Temple Scholarship, Arrowmont School of Art and Craft, 2023 Full Scholarship Pennland Recipient and the James Peter Duffy Assistantship Award for both 2022 and 2023 Academic Years.
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Hi Ross, I'm so happy to be here with you. I've been following your work for some time. I am amazed at how much depth you can get from relatively simple materials. 

Ross Junior Owusu

What do you love about making art?

What I love about making art is the dynamism to doing one thing in several different ways with either technique or material creating a spectrum of possibilities. 

Which mediums do you like working with the most? What are some of the more unusual ones you've used?

The mediums I work with is broad, covering clay, wood, metal parts, glass, and fabric. The unusual ones are resin or epoxy, bronze, aluminum casts, and nylon ropes.

What do you love about that?

I love how each material has a character of its own but yet can be combined with several others to also get another character with a form.

How do you evaluate your work?

I evaluate my work by the simplest connection that can be drawn from the physical form before a narrative is given, and if a narrative is given too, there must be a deeper connection to the form and concept. 

Where is your studio, and what is your primary work area?

My studio is on Wayne State campus in a facility called the foundry and that’s my primary work area.

What clues or questions do you use to select an idea to invest time and
resources?

 How do I relate to the concept

 How will I produce it

 What scale befits

 What aesthetics fully unite the concept, form, and finishing

 How will someone comprehend the work in their space

 How does it coexist in a cultural ecosystem

About your work: what do you hope people notice the most?

People notice my incisions, shapes and use of trade beads. 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Mostly working almost with little less clothes.

How do you define success as a creative? How do you hold yourself
accountable?

I hold myself accountable by setting month-semester or yearly objectives and marking them out.

"I love how each material has a character of its own but yet can be combined with several others to also get another character with a form."

When do you discuss things with your inner critic?

When I feel like there is more done to a body of work and it seems to feel little. That’s when I really break it down to get it very simple.

What advice do you have about throwing away work?

Well, I won’t advise throwing away work completely but will advise keeping it as canvas for development.

What advice can you share for artists who want to sell their work {online}?

I will say there is no actual value for a work of art, but selling should be on value of ownership because people buy works for just the mere aesthetic of it or reselling to make more profit from the artist's personality.

What would you tell other artists when they get frustrated with a project?

What I often do at that point is take a few steps back to reflect on my processing language to the point reached. Often, I reach to fellow artist or ordinary people to get a different perspective and after the incubating period, I go back with a fresh mind.

Who are your creative influences, and whose work are you admiring now?

My creative influences are those that expound on migration, questioning the originality of cultural identity, the legacies of impacts of racial marginalization and Cultural invasion.

• David Hammond
• Noah Purifoy
• Yinka shonibare
• El Anatsu
• Frederick E. Okai
• Vincent Sniper Frimpong
• Japheth Aseidu-kwarteng

How can people follow you and your work?

Website: hi.rossbyhands.com
Instagram: @rossbyhands

What would you like people to know that I haven't asked?

Who do I see myself to be; I am a Ghanian, African artist not just a BLACK person. I am, of course, a floating cultural being, but I know my roots, and my roots are the foundations of greater Ancestor-ship from the every pulse of my land. [emph by artist] 

Thank you for spending this time with me/us, Ross. I am inspired by the contrasts, detail, and delicacy in your work. Congrats on entering the third year of the MFA program. It's going to go fast. 

Open Invitation: Please come back whenever you have something to share with the ChC audience!