Is Everything Okay?

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson

8 February - 1 March 2022

The simple phrase that usually follows when greeting a friend or loved one is posed here as the show’s title in the context of multiple global concerns. How should we respond? Patrick Tagoe-Turkson’s approach is solitary, inventive and ecological. Detailed, ritualistic, steps are taken in the process of collecting, sorting, cutting and mending. He removes discarded debris found on beaches, remnants of the waste produced by commercial fishing and industrial production systems and reuses them as his materials. Fragments that began as masses of unwanted litter are transformed into rich, woven wall sculptures. Koop Projects is proud to present, for the first time in the United Kingdom, a selection of Tagoe-Turkson’s large-scale wall sculptures made of flip-flops. They are amongst some of his most well-known and pressing works. Drawing inspiration from the artist's heritage and tradition and our current worldly state, these abstract rubber "paintings" depict electric cityscapes, starry night skies, fuchsia sunsets and deep ocean vistas. A myriad of personal stories are contained in the material, speaking to our shared experience and geographical connection with the dualities of nature and manmade artificiality. Rhythmic, repeated lines, squares and blocks of colour recall the formula used in the traditional Ghanaian processes of fabric weaving (kente cloth) and basketry (bolga baskets). Tagoe-Turkson's engagement with flag-making (Asafo flags) also serves as a visual influence. He reforms and reinterprets these long established techniques, generating highly pigmented, seemingly pixelated objects that contain magnitudes of intense labour. The repetition of patterns, rhythms and shapes express his playful but insistent and urgent call to action.