And We Hired a Carpenter to Patch the Cloth

In And We Hired a Carpenter to Patch the Cloth, Eva Obodo addresses the legacies of coal mining, mineral extraction and labor in post-colonial Nigeria through a rigorous material practice. Using charcoal fragments bundled and tied with copper and aluminium wires, the works reference his father’s experience as a miner and broader systems of exploitation. The exhibition title metaphorically reflects the act of “patching” damaged systems—both social and material—while acknowledging the persistence of improvisation in the face of fracture. Obodo’s process involves washing, sorting, wrapping and stitching charcoal—a transformation of fuel-material into a meditative sculptural language. Through reliefs such as Pickman and Rush Hour, he interrogates the ecological and social toll of extraction while elevating discarded matter into poetic visual forms.