Jonathan Okoronkwo

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

Jonathan Okoronkwo’s art is fascinated by the afterlives of discarded machines, examining how these can materially transform, displace, and create new identities with these obsolete mechanical objects. Using the discarded materials he finds in scrapyards, Okoronkwo engages concepts of materiality, and the transformation of the waste of these discarded objects. The artist collects decommissioned steel engine parts, which he then liquifies in his studio lab, incorporating used motor oil as a key ingredient and medium in his work. To create his compositions, Okoronkwo digitally assembles images of broken machine parts, crafting his own reinventions and interpretations of the charged environments of scrapyards and auto garages. The artist’s work Lungulungu ways to be someway features five rusted pipes interweaving across the canvas, surrounded by clustered mechanical parts. In pidgin, "Lungulungu" translates to "complex paths are interesting," evoking the intricate and fascinating nature of Suame-Magazine, one of West Africa's largest industrial zones, located in Kumasi, Ghana. The rusted pipes, infused with liquified steel, symbolize the transformative and interconnected experiences of Suame-Magazine's occupants, both human and inhuman. These experiences, set against the backdrop of bustling workers and the noisy town, reflect the ability of Suame-Magazine's engineers to innovate and repair machines, inspiring the chaotic elements that organize themselves within the artwork.