identity theft: rice bearers

Satellite dishes are communication devices. I often use them as such a device in my artwork. This dish is covered with Ghanaian aso-oke woven cotton fabric from Bolgatanga, Ghana. I traded American cotton t-shirts produced by a Black American clothing company for West African fabric and garments. The vintage ink bottle contains rice and female human hair of African ancestry  (DNA). African women were primarily targeted and enslaved for their abilities in farming rice in West Africa. The antique ink bottle once held and is colored with indigo ink. Indigo is represented in many fabrics of West Africa, such as the fabric used in this artwork.

Assemblage: satellite dish reflector plate, rusted wire, rubber, acrylic medium, foil, plastic, aṣọ òkè Ghanaian woven cotton fabric, vintage glass ink bottle, rice, human hair locs
H 36” x W 21 1/2” x D 8”
(2022)