Cycling on the pool est basé sur un extrait du roman non publié de Agyeman Ossei “Threading a Needle in the Dark”. Cette interprétation en animation d'un cosmos spirituel personnel est à la fois autobiographique et fictive. Le protagoniste, Abayie, erre en rêve dans un monde souterrain où les conteurs, Prekese et Nkrabea, l’accompagnent dans le récit de sa vie. La narration est imprégnée de créatures mythiques (un homme noir à demi-loup blanc, une divinité crocodile ou Pagagod) d’origines contemporaines, ou issues de traditions indigènes.
Agyeman «Dota» Ossei (né en 1960) est un artiste ghanéen qui vit et travaille au Ghana. Il est également maître de conférences et a assuré la direction administrative et académique du département des arts du théâtre de l’université du Ghana à Legon de 2014 à 2017. Ossei a traduit et adapté des œuvres littéraires en pièces de théâtre, notamment Les belles sont pas encore nées, Osiris se lève et Les guérisseurs de Ayi Kwei Armah. Le Savannah Center for Contemporary Art Tamale and Red Clay a accueilli sa grande rétrospective au Ghana intitulée Akutia : Blindfolding the Sun and the Poetics of Peace (2020-2021).
Cycling on the pool (2020) is an excerpt from a bigger metaphysical story— “Threading a Needle in the Dark”, an unpublished novel written by Agyeman Ossei. This episodic 3D CGI interpretation of a personal spiritual cosmos is both autobiographical and fictional at the same time. The protagonist, Abayie, wakes up in a dream and wanders into the underworld where the storytellers, Prekese and Nkrabea, together with him, give an account of Abayie's life story which is the 25-minute tale represented by the animation. The narrative is infused with myth and mythical creatures (a half black man half white wolf, a crocodile deity or Pagagod) from both contemporary creations and indigenous sources. The animation tells the story of envy, courage, and faith.
Agyeman ‘Dota’ Ossei (b. 1960) is a Ghanaian artist who works and lives in Ghana and is also a senior lecturer who has provided administrative and academic leadership as head of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ghana, Legon from 2014 until his voluntary retirement in 2017. Ossei has translated and adapted literary works into theatre plays— notable among them Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born, Osiris Rising and The Healers. He has also directed the play Ananse and the Gum Man by Joe De-Graft selected for the Ghana @50 Theater Classics at the National Theater (2007). The Savannah Center for Contemporary Art Tamale and Red Clay hosted his major retrospective in Ghana titled Akutia: Blindfolding the Sun and the Poetics of Peace (2020-2021).