Serge Attukwei Clottey | If This Jerrycan Could TalkHow Do You Repurpose Discarded Found Materials?
artist: Kevin McHugh
Famous artists are often a reflection of the societies that celebrate them. It’s hard to separate the prominence of Warhol from the rise of advertising; difficult to extricate our image of Basquiat from the graffiti-strewn urban landscapes that spawned him; nigh impossible to extricate Duchamp’s urinal from the French people’s taste for the sexually subversive and absurd.
In which case, what to make of the rise of Ghanaian artist Serge Clottey, in today’s context? What might his newfound, burgeoning celebrity say about our global society, its priorities and its values?
In every age except for ours, it may have seemed less-than-feasible that a multimedia artist from Accra (pop. 1.5 million) could acquire major exhibitions across the world, features in major magazines, and name cache that leads to his works—many of which are composed out of small bits of plastic waste—selling at median five-figure prices.
Of course, our age is unlike any other, and Clottey’s work reflects the increasingly hot, flat, and crowded psychological landscape we all share.
“I follow the mantra, ‘Think global, act local’,” Clottey says, speaking via telephone from London, where he was awaiting participation in an exhibition and panel appearance, “For me, art is global—it is not about just yourself, it is about the world; it’s about your position in the world, and asking, ‘How do I transform it?’”
Source: Flaunt.com