Serge Attukwei Clottey: Stimulation of Consciousness

Stimulation of Consciousness  illustrates the artist’s experimental approach to materials and explores pressing socio-political and environmental issues in Ghana, inextricably linked to migration and trade. Working across sculpture, painting, performance, installation, and photography, Serge Attukwei Clottey explores the potent agency and potential of common objects, addressing their migration history, how they can serve as cultural relics and symbols of consumption and waste, and the ways in which they are linked to personal narratives and collective histories.

The exhibition includes a series of installations, sculptures and paintings that are created by cutting, drilling, stitching, and melting found materials. Clottey´s sustained engagement with the discarded material prompts a discussion about the origins and management of plastic waste in Ghana, along with the complex legacies of colonialism; the sculptures and mosaic installations are created through an assemblage of leftover yellow plastic water jugs, or "Kufuor gallons", originally intended for importing oil and now, stand as a symbol of environmental disaster and water scarcity in the region of Accra. The paintings follow the same approach; composed of carefully selected and placed strips of duct tape and fabrics arranged across cork boards, the artist transforms the meaning of these materials from an oppressive and violent tool to a symbol of pride, celebration, protection, and self-determination. These portrait works are informed through an interest in fashion as a facet of identity to rebel against antiquated notions of personhood and disrupt prevailing notions of gender, sexuality. The artist´s selected materials represent Ghana's informal economic system of trade and re-use through the use and reconfiguration of scrap materials found near the artist´s home in Accra, Ghana. Clottey´s works are tactile and formally beautiful, pointing to the human need to create, while combining dynamic energy with cultural influences, in order to establish a dialogue with Ghana's cultural history and identity.

Serge Attukwei Clottey (b. 1985, Accra, Ghana)  received an Honorary Doctorate of Art from the University of Brighton in 2019. Clottey´s work has been presented in exhibitions internationally, including Simon Lee, Art Basel; The Line Project, London; The Mistake Room, Los Angeles; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco; Gallery 1957, Accra; Gnyp, Berlin; Lorenzelli Arte, Milan; Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium Foundation, Oslo. His works have been included in recent group  exhibitions at Desert X, Palm Desert; Christie’s Beverly Hills, Los Angeles; The Moody Center, Rice University,  Houston; Iziko South Africa National Gallery, Cape Town; UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles.