When ‘Chop’ was about the environment, not food

Since Sunday February 17, the public art installation with the inscription ‘Chop Chop’ has been on display at the Novare Gateway Mall, Abuja. This time it was not about food but about beating plastic waste. Environmental artist, Ifesinachi Nwanyanwu is the brain behind it. He speaks to Daily Trust on Sunday about it.   What […]

Since Sunday February 17, the public art installation with the inscription ‘Chop Chop’ has been on display at the Novare Gateway Mall, Abuja. This time it was not about food but about beating plastic waste. Environmental artist, Ifesinachi Nwanyanwu is the brain behind it. He speaks to Daily Trust on Sunday about it.

 

What was the motivation to do have this installation?

We have a program where we get people from private and public organisations to come together and talk about art, environmental sustainability. There are architects, engineers, medical doctors and so on. We come together to share ideas on what they do. We believe that there is an element of art in every profession. Part of the ways on which people can engage, like embassies, and other oganizations, is to sponsor events. We have people from France talk about sustainable energy. For the past three years, the German Embassy has sponsored an environmental act and project where we have an open call for artists who want to participate in environmental art. These are art works that promote dialogue. We are focused on using art as a means to promote dialogue on environmental sustainability. So every year, the German Embassy and us, usually take out a call for creative people who want to be part of the project. People register to show interest and then we select. In 2016 an artist came from Berlin and organized a workshop in this regard. It was the same in 2017. But in 2018 we didn’t make a call. I was mandated to create a work that would resonate with the of the World Environment Day which was ‘Beat Plastic Pollution.’ It was about conscientising on the havoc plastic was causing and finding alternatives like people going shopping with their own bags rather than be dependent on shops or sellers to provide them with plastic bags.

I find the location of the display an irony with regards your message.

On the irony of the location you buy drinks and it goes to separate bag, detergent separate bag. So they are not in my view in any way it sinks with the message you are advocating. So was this at the back of your mind when you decided to hold this? is it a direct message to them and others like therm.

The German Embassy came up with the idea about the location. At the first instance there was a bit of misunderstanding of what we want to do and the shop owners. It seemed as if we were outrightly condemning them or shutting them down. But we told them we simply wanted to expose things the way they are and let people decide. If you look at the number of people who go shopping there and the number of plastic bags… We wanted people to know there are alternatives which they are hop owners can provide. But when you suppress everything, it doesn’t help.

How long is it running for?

As a result of the skirmishes we had initially, we were talking about a couple of weeks. But when we put it up, they liked it. So, we are thinking it would go on for about a month or two.

Did you work on it alone?

I worked on it alone in the sense that we developed what we were going to do and then made a proposal to create a shopping bag. I had assistants who worked with me in the studio. But on this particular one, I didn’t call for artists to volunteer unlike in 2016 and 2017.