Ghanaian Author Ibrahim Mahama Purchases Old Trains Across The Country
Ibrahim Mahama is a Ghanaian author and an artist of monumental installations. He lives and works in Tamale, Ghana.
He’s famous for making masterpieces out of what others would consider the trash, he uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation, and economic exchange.
His large-scale installations, which he frequently creates in collaboration with others, feature stitched-together and covered architectural structures constructed of materials obtained from urban surroundings, such as remnants of wood or cotton bags.
Since Mahama lives and works in Ghana, he naturally became interested in the jute sacks that are widespread in the country’s booming trade marketplaces.
The Ghana Cocoa Boards import the sacks, which are made in Southeast Asia, initially to transport cocoa beans but which are currently now being used to transport food, charcoal, and other goods. When you look closely at the fabric of the bags, “you see multiple points of beauty,” as Mahama put it.
Artist Ibrahim Mahama has just relocated to the northern portion of Ghana, where he is displaying a collection of extremely old trains that he purchased from various locations around the nation.
