Made in Porto-Novo
Artist: Romuald Hazoumè (Republic of Benin, born 1962)
Date: 2009
Dimensions:
H: 210 cm; W: 300 cm; Depth: 150 cm
Medium: Plastic canisters, various metals, and a wood platform
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchased with funds given by Dorothy Mackenzie Price
Object number: 2013.159
Label Text:An innovative installation shaped from plastic gas cannisters into a band ensemble, Romuald Hazoumè’s Made in Porto-Novo (MIP) explores such weighty topics as corporate exploitation of natural resources and its effects on developing societies, and issues of cultural tradition and cultural appropriation. The music that is integral to the work is based on Hazoumè’s one-day recording of the activities of the Kpayo Army, a group of illegal petroleum traffickers in Porto-Novo, Benin’s capital. Hazoumè sees these men as “heroes of survival” who do a dangerous job for little money. He explained, “I wanted to give back to them all something positive, something extraordinary, by speaking about a single day in their lives, about something in their lives that is part of our wealth, something we [as Africans] have and that no other people can teach us: music.”
Hazoumè has stated that remembering tradition is significant and key to progress in any community. By fashioning masks and objects out of gas canisters, he both evokes his Yoruba ancestry and challenges the Western world’s interpretation of African art—its supposed primitivism and Western museums’ interest in collecting and displaying it.
Hazoumè has stated that remembering tradition is significant and key to progress in any community. By fashioning masks and objects out of gas canisters, he both evokes his Yoruba ancestry and challenges the Western world’s interpretation of African art—its supposed primitivism and Western museums’ interest in collecting and displaying it.
DescriptionMade in Porto-Novo is an installation piece featuring Hazoumè’s trademark plastic canisters and vessels, which has been shaped into four instruments of a band ensemble. The band ensemble includes drums, bass, saxophone and a trumpet. Along with the jerry-can portrait placed in front of the instruments, there are also Benin sounds emanating from the instruments themselves. Within the object, next to the bass fiddle, a white sound box sits inside.
MIP is an installation piece featuring Hazoumè’s trademark plastic canisters and vessels, which has been shaped into four instruments of a band ensemble. The band ensemble includes drums, bass, saxophone and a trumpet. Along with the jerry-can portrait placed in front of the instruments, there are also Benin sounds emanating from the instruments themselves. The plastic elements are secured together with copper wires run through holes as well as screws and tape. They are attached to a wood platform with metal armatures and screws.
Within the object, next to the bass fiddle, a white sound box sits inside with white wires concealed in its support and under the platform. Wiring feeds through tubing and plugs into an electrical wall outlet behind. Copper wire is frequently used in its construction to hold materials together. A round, black, steel rod is part of its skeletal structure.
MIP is an installation piece featuring Hazoumè’s trademark plastic canisters and vessels, which has been shaped into four instruments of a band ensemble. The band ensemble includes drums, bass, saxophone and a trumpet. Along with the jerry-can portrait placed in front of the instruments, there are also Benin sounds emanating from the instruments themselves. The plastic elements are secured together with copper wires run through holes as well as screws and tape. They are attached to a wood platform with metal armatures and screws.
Within the object, next to the bass fiddle, a white sound box sits inside with white wires concealed in its support and under the platform. Wiring feeds through tubing and plugs into an electrical wall outlet behind. Copper wire is frequently used in its construction to hold materials together. A round, black, steel rod is part of its skeletal structure.
On view
In Collection(s)