The ON WAX Global Art Laboratory is a collaborative research-creation experiment that brings together a diverse community of artists and creators from the Global North and Global South, united by a willingness to explore themes of exchange and gift versus exploitation and appropriation through the art of collages, assemblages, poetry and storytelling.

As artists we know that we never create in a vacuum. We are always influenced—by other artists, other cultures, and the world around us in a constant process of becoming. This can be incredibly fertile—but it can also be violent and exploitative, especially when shaped by colonial history, capitalist agendas, or systemic inequalities.

Our collective question: How do we navigate cultural entanglement ethically?
Our currency: artistic generosity

As an international community of artists and creators we will experiment with the artistic proposition “ Art as gift: making the impossible possible” from artist-teacher Kąrî’Kạchä seid’ou, founder of the blaxTARLINES incubator & head of KNUST art department, in Kumasi Ghana.

The hybrid history of African wax prints will serve as a backdrop for exploring, through art-making, the themes of cultural appropriation and cultural hybridization—informed by the question posed by Jens Balzer in “The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation” (2023): “If culture is essentially appropriation, the question is not whether the assimilation of foreign cultural motifs is legitimate, but which forms of cultural appropriation are acceptable as respectful—and which are not, because they are rooted in exploitation.”

Bridging postmodern philosophy (thinking) and Poiesis (knowing through making)

Inspired by the postmodern philosophical concepts of deconstruction and hybridization, which have played a central role in postcolonial and critical theory, we will approach these questions through artistic poiesis /knowing through making/ to foster the emergence of new forms of knowledge.
We will use as raw material for artistic creation a shared visual library of motifs from African wax print designs and traditional African weaving patterns. These motifs are not neutral: while weaving patterns point toward a universal visual language across human cultures, the complex history of African Wax prints reflects simultaneously colonial exploitation, cultural hybridization and African cultural resilience. 

These chosen wax print motifs are primarily figurative, depicting humans, animals, artifacts, and manmade objects. They embody the intricate web of relationships that connect us—to each other, to the natural world, and to the cultural artifacts we create—reflecting the complex relational continuum that shapes our shared existence. In African traditions cloth is a form of communication, where patterns are named and worn to express identity, social interactions, or personal narrative. This common library of textile motifs will serve as a non-verbal symbolic language that we will collectively reinterpret and reappropriate through a live poietic act of creation, generating new narratives together.

To enrich this process with the multiplicity of our community, participants will bring into the experiment a selection of their own inspirational imagery and texts. Through the deconstruction and métissage of these materials we will disturb the familiar and crack through the fixity of our assumptions, to recompose hybrid visual and textual fragments. We will open ourselves to the unexpected and experiment with new ways of seeing and perceiving. In sharing our multiple creations, we will look to collectively generate new ways of knowing.

This laboratory is not a search for definitive answers, but a shared space of artistic exploration, reciprocity, and transformation. 

Who will be part

• Artists & creators from Ghana 
  From the Nubuke foundation community
  From the KNUST & blaxTarlines community in Kumasi
• Artists & creators from the Bayo Akomolafé extended community (Selah, The Emergence Network, Dancing with Mountains, Atmos, Advaya) are welcome to join from USA – Meso & South Americas and beyond.
• Artists & creators from the Art Lab nomad multicultural community Europe
• Artists & creators worldwide interested to join this experiment

How to participate

• Send a message through the contact link specifying that you wish to join the up coming GLOBAL ON WAX ART LABORATORY with a few words about yourself.
• You will receive a short questionnaire to fill up and send back to confirm your registration.
• Penciled the date and time in your calendar: 15th of July @ 5 pm CET
• 2 weeks before the LAB gathering you will receive a set of motifs from the ON WAX library of motifs & patterns. The sets are randomly attributed and will be send to you via email in the form of a pdf that you will have to print on 4 x A4 sheets before the LAB.
• You will also need to prepare your personal imagery in the form of 4 x A4 prints which could be photos of your own artworks, photos of your surrounding, photos that inspire you to bring in this experiment, images found on the web or magazines.
• You will also need to bring a text of your choice also printed on 1 x A4 sheet. This text could be your own writing, or quotes, poems, a text that inspire you.
• The basic art materials you will need are: 1 x A3 white sheet (or 2 x A4 sheets) for the collage, several extra A4 sheets for writing, pens, scissors, glue.
• Not special skills are necessary other than your commitment to engage in the process.
• The participation is free. Our currency will be artistic generosity and exchanges.
• At the end of the LAB, you will need to send me via email a photo of your visual creation, with your typed text and eventually an audio recording of your text. From this materials I will create a collective Slide show/sound collage of our multiple voices to share with all of us.

What to expect during the LAB