
Sofia Vellano Rubin
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Provenance
Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana;
A private collection.
Exhibited
London, 1-54 Art Fair, 2016.
Serge Clottey is known for work that examines the powerful agency of everyday objects, Clottey explores personal and political narratives rooted in histories of trade and migration. Based in Accra and working internationally, Clottey refers to his work as "Afrogallonism", a concept that confronts the question of material culture through the utilisation of yellow gallon containers. Cutting, drilling, stitching found materials, Clottey's sculptural installations are bold assemblages that act as a means of inquiry into the languages of form and abstraction.
In this wall piece he utilises flattened Kuffuor gallons (jerrycans) to form abstract formations onto which he inscribes patterns. Some surfaces resemble local textile traditions such as Kente cloth, a traditional Ghanaian hand-woven fabric that symbolises moral, cultural, and philosophical values through vibrant geometrical patterns representing various codes. In incorporating this traditional form of weaving into his work, the artist elevates the material into a powerful symbol of Ghana's informal economic system of trade and re-use.