Technological Objects / Organisms at Goethe-Institut

The exhibition reveals an imaginary world where decaying automobile parts harbor organisms like insects and reptiles among others communicate through a dystopian imagery.
 

by John Owoo

It is no surprise that certain types of bacteria can clean up and inhabit troublesome metallurgical waste from smelting industries, abandoned vehicles and discarded automobile engines – but what is surprising is the incorporation of this process into the artworks of young Ghanaian artist Martin Cudjoe.

Indeed, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi) graduate has embarked on an expedition to explore the relationship between small living organisms and mechanized objects, which have been discarded and left at the mercy of the weather.

Curated by Ato Jackson, selected works on display at the Goethe-Institut in Accra, reveal an imaginary world where decaying automobile parts harbor organisms like insects, reptiles, amphibians, rodents, cats and birds that communicate through a dystopian imagery.
 

Employing technological and architectural interventions as a basis for reference – he comments on the destruction of natural environments through human activities – which have exacerbated the issue of climate change, thereby resulting in droughts, storms, floods, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans.

With mixed-media techniques, Cudjoe utilizes imaginative and fanciful characters that he created through illusory alterations while amalgamating them with diverse organic forms, engines and various geometric figures.

Undeniably, his paintings are the result of photographs he takes from discarded vehicle engines, which he transforms into what he calls “characters in a fictional story” of modification and co-existence due to habitat loss and reduction in biodiversity / species abundance.

Titled “Evolution into Unknown”, the exhibition, which was supported by the Goethe-Institut, ends on Tuesday August 2, 2022.