Artist’s Statement

Benedicta Opoku-Mensah As an interdisciplinary artist interested in the history of gendering of material culture and the built environment, I am fascinated by the ways tools, materials, and spaces shape our daily lives. Growing up in Ghana, where sculpture and the use of materials such as wood, metal, stone, and ivory have long been perceived as masculine pursuits, I experienced these gendered assumptions firsthand.

This personal experience informs my investigation into the systems of knowledge imposed on African art history through European colonialism and the lasting influence these frameworks continue to have on contemporary artistic practice. I examine how colonial systems of classification have produced gendered material culture that continue to shape the materials African artists work with and the value assigned to those materials across Africa.

Working across sculpture, performance, poetry, installation, and hybrid object-making, I explore the cultural meanings embedded in materials and everyday objects. By disrupting their conventional functions, I question how gender, class, and colonial histories influence perceptions of labor, craftsmanship, and material value. Through absurdity, hybridity, humor, and storytelling, I create objects that blur the boundaries between utility and adornment, familiarity, and estrangement, inviting new ways of engaging with the material world.

My work proposes alternative ways of understanding material culture by challenging inherited systems of categorization and value. Through objects, performances, and participatory experiences, I invite audiences to reflect on how material value, histories, and identities are constructed. Ultimately, my practice envisions a more equitable and inclusive material landscape—one that resists colonial legacies and expands the possibilities of artistic expression beyond gendered expectations.

Exhibition Dates:
August 5 - 10

Gallery Hours:
Thursday-Friday: 4pm to 7 pm
Saturday: 2pm to 8 pm
Sunday: 2pm to 6 pm