Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Conceptual ceramics has unlimited boundaries. This is ceramics beyond household utility but into issues of societal concerns. This study uses conceptual ceramics to portray and interrogate the unfortunate electioneering malpractices that has bedeviled the political land scape of African democracy. Inspiration was garnered from conceptual ceramics ventures by proponents and masters of this type of ceramics practice, whom have been held in high esteem as far as using their art for societal redress is concern. Away from their (proponents) mode of production, this study devised “construction and deconstruction”, a process that has been coined in context of this paper, combined both traditional and contemporary mode of practice in achieving the desired conceptual tactile forms for this study. “Bastardized Electoral Process”, which is the title of the art work in this study openly illustrates and disgraces the politics of greed, impunity, and insensitivity against the citizenry piling on them the absolute weight of oppression. The study has created premise on different connotations, first for academic discourse, secondly for philosophical and aesthetic contributions to knowledge and thirdly, to address this negative tendencies in Africa. Cluster of non-living images in clay has been downloaded and endued with life by equipping them with voice with which they are able to make socio-political commentary for all to hear.