Ibrahim Mahama (b. 1987)

‘They are jute sacks used for the transportation of food and commodities in Ghana, specifically cocoa. They are produced in Southeast Asia with an intense amount of labour. I was first of all drawn to this material in terms of “the common”: In Ghana almost every home has it. It has a lot of uses. When you take a bus on a rainy day and you need to clean the mud off your feet there is a jute sack there to do that work. If there is a fire you can quench it with a wet jute sack. I was drawn to its function and later on also for its aesthetics when being used for transporting charcoal. You find different points of aesthetics within the surface of the sacks’ fabric: some areas have turned white which means they have been outside for 6-7 months. The aesthetics of the sacks are acquired over time, from its various owners. I am interested in how crisis and failure are absorbed into this material with a strong reference to global transaction and how capitalist structures work.’
–Ibrahim Mahama