The Bodies Left Behind is available for purchase
The Bodies Left Behind
Serge Attukwei Clottey (b. 1985, Ghana) primarily employs materials found in the artist’s hometown of Accra to create a dialogue with the city’s cultural history and identity.
Utilizing everyday objects such as discarded Kufuor gallons, duct tape, and cork, Clottey explores personal and political narratives rooted in histories of trade and migration.
The yellow Kufuor gallons (initially used as cooking oil canisters and then recycled to collect water or fuel) applied throughout Clottey’s work stem from a desire to find ways to work with these plastics and recycle them creatively.
This has become a prominent motif throughout Clottey’s oeuvre, which the artist calls ‘Afrogallonism.’
"The Bodies Left Behind" (2021) is a sculpture made by transforming sections of traditional Ghanaian fishing boats into a singular sculptural work that can be viewed with or without accompanying immersive audio, produced as part of the installation.
Harkening on ideas surrounding the politics of globalization and the impact consumerism has on our environment, "The Bodies Left Behind" uses sounds of crashing ocean waves collected as field recording along the Ghanaian coastline and cladding made from patches of plastic Kufuor gallons to critique the social, environmental, and economic legacies of colonialism that have affected Ghana for centuries.