A master of appropriation and transformation, Romuald Hazoumè uses found materials from his native Benin and beyond, with particular emphasis on plastic gasoline containers. In his sculptures and installations, these ordinary objects become pointed indictments of what he has called “Coca Cola culture,” a global plague of exploitation, division, corruption, desire, and conflict. The plastic canisters, or bidons, refer to the dangerous practice of selling contraband gasoline from Nigeria in Benin, explicitly criticizing the actions of multinational oil companies in West Africa, which export resources and leave locals to rely on black market fuel, but they also take on a more human aspect—remade into contemporary African “masks” in Hazoumè’s iconic sculptures and gathered into crowds in his large-scale installations, where they give a face to migration, representing those displaced and lost through war and environmental neo-colonialism.
Robert Preece: Your sculpture Cry of the Whale (2016) was made for “All in the same boat” at October Gallery in London. You also created a photograph of the sculpture, an imagined “installation” for the front cover of the exhibition catalogue, in which the boat appears to have run aground on the beach. What prompted you to create such a compelling image?
Romuald Hazoumè: The photograph came from the following idea—numerous whales have washed up on beaches because they are dying from swallowing plastic residue and because the sea is getting warmer. I imagine they also cry because they see more and more dead bodies at sea—those of migrants. I wanted to try to visualize the work, with its precious human cargo, washed ashore. . .
. . . Subscribe to print and/or digital editions of Sculpture to read the full article.
