Kafa Ulaya

Kafa Ulaya is an electro-acoustic installation and performance piece done in cooperation with visual artist Susanne Paluszewski-Hau.

Meaning ‘Dead White Mans Clothes’, Kafa Ulaya presents a sculptural installation of claysculptures and discarded clothing suspended through a string network that is conncted to an abstract visual portrait of a beach in Accra, Ghana. As many other locations around the globe, this beach is currently suffering heavily from the accumulation of textile waste.

As a composition, the piece centers on balancing an electro-acoustically animated connection between the geographies of the consumers and dumpsites such as the beach in Accra. Through the use of gravitational force, strings changes the capacity of feedback-based sounds, according to the changing mass of textile waste hung from each string. Thus, the performance is a ritualized action of dealing with the system and struggles of textile waste management, creating and maintaining a soundscape in a the struggle between balance (and the risk of statis) vs. a continuous development (and the risk of chaos).

Kafa Ulaya was developed during a processual exhibition in which the artists cocreated the finished piece throughout a week and presenting the results in the end as an app. 15 minutes performance to a general audience.