Serge Attukwei Clottey: My Mother's Wardrobe - Gallery 1957, Accra 7 Mar - 20 May
Gallery 1957’s inaugural exhibition My Mother’s Wardrobe presents new work by artist Serge Attukwei Clottey. Founded in Accra by collector Marwan Zakhem, Gallery 1957 is a new gallery with a curatorial focus on contemporary Ghanaian art presenting a programme of exhibitions, installations and performances by the country’s most significant artists. Based in Accra and working internationally, Clottey’s powerful testimony to his mother in the aftermath of her death will explore narratives of personal, family and collective histories. In continuation of Clottey’s established use of assemblage, he considers the value of material as a tangible experience of loss. My Mother’s Wardrobe is a result of Clottey’s residency with ANO, whose remit is to uncover hidden and alternative, personal and collective histories, which make up what is now known as Ghana. This is the first in a series of exhibitions under the Creative Directorship of ANO at Gallery 1957 that look to expand exhibitions outside of a closed, limited space. Clottey’s works examine the powerful agency of everyday objects, with particular focus on the significance of personal clothing. Nana Oforiatta Ayim, founder of ANO, and Creative Director of Gallery 1957 explains: “According to custom in many parts of Ghana, a person’s wardrobe is locked up for a year after their death then released to relatives, often leaving the person’s offspring with little or nothing of the material memory of that person. Textiles and materials in Ghana, and other parts of West Africa - each weft, line or mark - are potent carriers of memory, of communication, and the artist weaves into his sculptures subtle traces of loss, remembering, and of rebirth.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a performance on Independence Day, 6th March that will expand on some of the themes of the exhibition. Through his close consideration of West African culture Clottey’s subject matter reaffirms Gallery 1957’s dedication to highlighting Ghana on the international art stage. Clottey is the founder of Ghana’s GoLokal performance collective and the creator of Afrogallonism, an artistic concept commenting on consumption within modern Africa through the utilisation of yellow gallon containers. Clottey has performed and exhibited widely at solo and group shows over the past decade, including: The Kampnagel, Hamburg (2015); Intelligentsia Gallery, Beijing (2015); The Mistake Room, Los Angeles (2015); 27th Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Marseille (2014); WUK, Wien (2014); Mohr-Villa, Munich (2014); Ozwald Boateng, London (2014); 11th Dak’art, Dakar (2014); Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2014); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012); The Drum Ace Café, Birmingham (2010) and at AfriCAM, Napoli (2009). Clottey has also held artist residencies at ANO Centre for Cultural Research Accra (2015 – 2016) and Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (2013).
Serge Attukwei Clottey, My Mother’s Wardrobe, curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim/ ANO
Dates: 7 March – 20 May 2016
Opening Reception with performance by GoLokal 6th March at 5pm
Address: Gallery 1957, Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, PMB 66 – Ministries, Gamel Abdul Nasser Avenue, Ridge – Accra, Ghana
Telephone: +233 303967575
