This winter, Jute sacks 'Produced in Ghana' transform the walls of the Herta and Paul Amir building into a politically powerful exhibition.
When in India, Bangladesh or their final destination in Ghana, Africa, these jute sacks are a drab everyday staple. Made up of coarse unappealing fibres, they commonly serve as vessels for transporting cocoa or coffee. However, once stripped from their utilitarian-nomad life cycle and transposed into another world, their artistic potential becomes boundless.
Ghana native, Ibrahim Mahama, recognized the potential in the raw materials that make up these third world jute sacks, specifically how such a simple item could represent such a poignant concept: the labour behind global production means. Dirt, sweat and tears try to mask the iconic three words 'Produced in Ghana' stamped on each jute sack marking years of unfair labour; however, they refuse to be silenced, peeking out from behind the abuse.
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Mahama believes that 'flattened and depleted of physical cargo, the sacks manifest the vestiges of the hurls they underwent between their countries of production, transit and destination, and bear the ownership signs of companies and states like branding on the bodies of slaves'. The artist brings these branded, depleted sacks to the forefront in his installation titled 'Fracture', pasting them over buildings in various cities worldwide – from Accra to Venice to Michigan and now, Tel Aviv. He enables the woven sacks to reveal their rich history, while giving them a new – arguably better – life.
As the interior of the architecturally stunning Lightfall Herta and Paul Amir building disappears behind faded stamps, 'the gap between the elegant, angular structure and the jute's rough, ragged texture is almost the tension and friction between the first and the third worlds'. And so, whether on your way to work or a nearby café, when passing by this iconic museum in central Tel Aviv, pop in to marvel at the White City turned brown and think about how each angle corresponds to the slopes, slants, fractures and fissures of the jute sacks' places of origin.
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Dec 9-Apr 22. The Lightfall Herta and Paul Amir Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 27 Shaul HaMelech Blvd, Tel Aviv (http://www.tamuseum.org.il). Mon, Wed, Sat 10:00-18:00; Tue, Thu 10:00-21:00; Fri 10:00-14:00