By Henry Akubuiro
One of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, Kantamanto, in Accra, Ghana, comes into the radar of installation and performing art of artist, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian.
The artist whose works, over the years, have been thematically centred on textiles and their African connections to other parts of the world expands her focus in a site-specific art installation Okrika Reclaimed, holding in Kantamanto market, Accra. Apart from being described as one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets, Kantamanto is also a massive open-air dump for textile waste.
The Okrika Reclaimed project is 2024 ‘Anonymous Was A Woman’ (AWAW) Environmental Art Grant supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and in part by Foundation for Contemporary Art, NYC. However, Udondian, who is based in New York is doing the Okrika Reclaimed project in collaboration with the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ghana. The project also include a talk at FCA, Accra on July 10, 2025 as well as Okrika reclaimed – Runway, a performance taking place at Kantamanto market on July 12.
“For more than a decade, my work has questioned the complex dynamics of the second-hand clothing market, particularly in Africa, where the continent has become a dumping ground for various forms of waste from the West,” Udondian explained parts of her focus leading to the current project. “The influx of used clothing bales, notably in countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, has led to environmental challenges, with up to 40% of the clothing deemed unusable and subsequently contributing to clothing mountains that pose significant pollution threats.”
Apart from being the name of a town in Rivers State, South South of Nigeria, ‘okrika’ is also used for fast fashion-related expression. From the Nigerian expression, Udondian got her inspiration for Okrika Reclaimed, perhaps in a much broader context of the global textile waste. The Okrika Reclaimed project engages the Accra market, using workshops and cleanup efforts. She added that the artistic contents include the reclaimed textile waste being repurposed into large-scale outdoor installations and performance.
Widely believed to be part of humanitarian activities towards the global south, the secondhand clothings export is also a huge industry. Udondian’s art challenges the humanitarianism perspective, arguing that the shipments of such clothings to Africa constitutes environmental issues. She boasted that her work questions the industries’ motives, which perhaps started “under the guise of Western humanitarianism towards the global South.” She insisted that the results of the textiles wastes “have had a profound impact on the cultural identity, economy and mostly the environment in the recipient countries.
The challenges, she stated, lead to the management of unwanted stock at high costs to the receiving countries.
When the first phase of her work took off in the New York area, in collaboration with immigrant communities, it examined their roles in labor production for capitalist systems. The work also highlighted the adverse conditions prevailing in the global South, where fast fashion is primarily manufactured. The New York phase culminated in intercepting bales intended for shipment to Africa and using them to create a large-scale community textile sculpture, which showcased at the 2023 British Textile Biennial in England.
As she expanded the narrative to Africa with Okrika Reclaimed, focusing on the continent believed to be the most affected by textile waste, the community benefits using her creative platform. Udondian noted that her site-specific project generated, among the community, awareness of the environmental and social impact of textile waste dumping through site-specific interventions. Among such benefits was her collaboration with FCA Ghana and Revival Earth, a textile upcycling NGO and fabric lab.
Highlights of the project also included participants of the Kayayei—women head porters, said to have migrated from northern Ghana to Accra, in search of the proverbial greener pastures. Udondian noted that the impact of the secondhand clothing trade is heavy, “literally and figuratively” on the bodies of the women. “Five of them are currently collaborating with me to weave sculptural headpieces that reflect their role and experience within the market. Beyond this phase, the project gestures toward a broader conversation: how can we imagine and support alternatives to this physically demanding labor?”
Udondian is a Visiting Associate Professor of Art, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, New York. Some of her art journey include being named 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and showed her work at The British Textile Biennial, United Kingdom. Others include Hacer Nocer at Museo Textil de Oaxaca, (Textile Museum of Oaxaca), Mexico; The Bronx Museum, New York; The Inaugural Nigerian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial-An Excerpt; Fisher Landau Centre for the Arts, New York; and National Museum, Lokaja and Lagos, Nigeria; Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Lagos, among others.