‘Castaways’ on show in Accra

Australian artist/author, Virginia Ryan is staging an exhibition in Accra with discarded items she collected from along the Ghanaian coastline. The exhibition at Alliance Francaise in Accra was dubbed ‘Castaways’.

On display were rows of works that hung together in a continuous wave. The exhibits are made of items like flip-flops (‘charlie wote’), pieces of wood, nets, knifes, bags, shoes, shells and balls.

Ryan, who is the wife of the former Italian Ambassador in Ghana, Giancarlo Izzo, effectively creates an environment concerned with the memory of gold, slavery, contacts, movements, oceans, beaches, shorelines and people.

The pieces, which are constructed from organic and inorganic materials that were purchased, used and discarded -- and later spotted by Ryan, who is noted for a sharp eye that can detect objects which carry intense messages.

The Whitworth Museum in Manchester, UK in collaboration with the Granada Royal Trust for Visual Anthropology will showcase one thousand of the pieces with sound and film accompaniment from May 19th as part of the activities marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

The exhibition is being organised in collaboration with the Environmental Film Festival of Accra, the Alliance Francaise and the French Embassy in Accra.