Fatric Bewong, a young Ghanaian female artist with passion and concern for her environs, felt the need not to be indifferent towards the issue. Instead, she focuses her energy on finding inspiration in what she calls ‘waste products,’ which she uses creatively by transforming them into brilliant artworks.
Fatric’s current exhibition is underway at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra. Nubuke Foundation is an art space situated in the leafy suburb of East-Legon in Accra. In line with its mission to provide a space dedicated to the recording, preserving, and promoting of Ghanaian visual art, culture, and heritage, Nubuke Foundation offers programmes ranging from exhibitions on art and Ghanaian culture, heritage and history, art workshops, poetry, and drama. It has an extensive interior space ideal for art exhibitions and installations. One of the objectives of this foundation is the need for a central role for art in the national development agenda and to bridge the gap between art and science for proper industrial development.
The exhibition opened on the 5th of March 2016 and will end on the 29th of May 2016. The exhibition is entitled ‘Caught In The Web.’ It is the artist’s way of making a case for the 3R approach (recycle, reuse, reduce) and the global warming experience. In her bid to drive home her point, she exhibited a miscellany of objects, fabric draperies, and paintings.
Fatric’s installation included colourful pieces of cloth ends hand-stitched together beautifully, which she calls the ‘identity series.’ These were chosen to help give geographical reference, as many can identify them as coming from Ghana or West Africa. She chose to look at the works in the identity series as four-dimensional pieces, suspended in time and space.
Another was the installation of a mannequin dressed in poly bags. This is what Fatric forces us to confront with the ‘faceless runaway bride’—by our refusal to see. Mocking this reaction, she hands over the materials back to us in the form of a bride.
Another intriguing installation was what she calls the ‘Bird’s Eye View - the Web.’ This piece is put together like a cityscape. Fatric attempts to capture and assemble the ‘spirits,’ memories, and experiences that have rubbed off on the bags into her web—representing the environment of re-imagined realities. She adapted the materials by putting them through chemical transformations with heat and other methods to create different palettes and textures, employing skilful and artistic precision.
She ensured that the viewers are not just swayed by the artistic value of her installation but, most importantly, drawn into deep thought about their environment.
Fatric Bewong received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, in 2006. Her works—largely fabric installations, performances, and paintings—focus on consumerism behaviour and its impact on ecology and the environment. Her sometimes shocking performances are meant to push the public into reconsidering the consequences of human action on the environment.
Bewong has exhibited in the USA, Germany, Nigeria, and Ghana at institutions including San Diego Museum, Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, Alliance Française, Accra, Goethe-Institut, Accra, British Council, Accra, and Nubuke Foundation, Accra.
Her works are included in the collections of the Institute of African Studies, the Dei Center for the Study of Contemporary African Art, Artists Alliance Gallery Accra, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art..