The designer turning Kantamanto's discarded jeans into art - and the show closes Wednesday
Beatrice 'Bee' Arthur built JEAN-ESIS: Chapter One from old denim, used tyres, rubber gloves and dead branches - much of it from Kantamanto Market, where campaigners estimate about 40% of the 15 million garments arriving every week become waste. The installation is on show at the Accra Arts Centre until Wednesday 4 November.
By Ernest · 1 November 2026
What the installation is
Ghanaian fashion curator Beatrice "Bee" Arthur is using discarded clothing and other waste materials to highlight the environmental impact of the global fashion industry. Her installation, JEAN-ESIS: Chapter One, is on at the Accra Art Centre and is built from old denim, used tyres, rubber gloves, dead tree branches and mannequins, arranged to depict the environmental consequences of clothing production and consumption. The work took four weeks to complete.
It forms part of BEYOND CREATION: Humanity, Nature and Spirituality, a Universal Message, an exhibition organised in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy. The exhibition opened on 4 October, features 40 artists - about 90 per cent of them Ghanaian - and runs until Wednesday, 4 November 2026.
Where the materials come from
Arthur draws much of her material from Kantamanto Market in Accra, one of the major destinations for second-hand clothing imported from Europe, North America and Asia. The clothes - commonly called obroni wawu, meaning "dead white man's clothes" - are sold in bales, but a significant proportion cannot be resold or reused.
According to estimates by The Or Foundation, a non-profit working in Kantamanto, about 15 million garments arrive at the market every week, with approximately 40 per cent becoming waste. Much of that ends up in dumpsites, drains and on beaches.
The rest of her materials came from around Accra: branches and dead trees from a cemetery, used tyres from vulcanisers in her neighbourhood, plus textile offcuts and rubber gloves.
What the pieces say
The installation's mannequins, some of them about 20 years old, represent garment workers in denim factories across Asia who are exposed to the dyes, bleaches and other chemicals used in producing and finishing jeans. A central feature is a hand-stitched, hand-painted serpent - Arthur uses it not as a symbol of temptation but of wisdom, fertility, regeneration and hope.
Through these elements she explores the relationship between clothing consumption, environmental degradation and the human decisions that contribute to waste. The work also points to the mixed impact of Ghana's second-hand clothing trade: it supports thousands of traders and tailors who repair and resell used garments, while leaving the country to deal with large quantities of clothing nobody can use.
The exhibition behind it
BEYOND CREATION is curated by Nuna Adisenu-Doe and Andrea Walter Ghia and brings together Ghanaian and international artists to explore humanity's relationship with nature and spirituality. The opening ceremony attracted artists, cultural institutions and diplomats, including Italy's Ambassador to Ghana and Togo, Laura Ranalli, and Dr Fio Richardson Commey, Special Aide to the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts. Arthur acknowledged the support of Wakefield Wisdom Ackuaku, Acting Executive Director of the National Commission on Culture, and Eric Ohene-Larbi, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture, in facilitating the collaboration with the Italian Embassy.
If you want to see it
JEAN-ESIS: Chapter One is at the Accra Arts Centre (Centre for National Culture) as part of BEYOND CREATION, which closes on Wednesday, 4 November 2026. If you are in Accra this week, it is a short window.