Arts for Environment Protection

Douala's artist Py Samuel Dipoko has opened his gallery in a residential area in Bonaberi.

The new structure, Py Samuel Dipoko Art Gallery in Bonendale, owned and operated by Py Samuel Dipoko, is far from a hub for decorative purposes. The uniqueness of the gallery is that its artifacts are designed from relics of electronic gadgets, thrown-away plastic containers, use of water hyacinth that is a threat to life in the Wouri River and waste material littering the city.

Though he utilises "useless" material, the end product is always a fine piece, an artefact that has been carefully put together thereby protecting the environment from destruction and pollution. The artist's work is mainly to mount and paint bits and pieces of the material against a background made of cloth and attached to a wooden frame. "An artist begins his work by first collecting debris, for instance thrown-away parts of electronic gadgets, plastic bags and containers as well as necessary bits and pieces of other material, from garbage cans. He washes them, and then starts to mount them into a costly artefact, beautiful to see such that only a casual observer may think it is a mad person," says the proprietor of the Gallery, former Member of Parliament, Hon. Py Samuel Dipoko.

Dipoko's paintings, with a tilt on plastic arts, explores Douala's varied relationships with the environment, dreams and aspirations also run through the many interactive presentations that showcase more than several different artefacts, cultural materials, and works of art. Douala has always been a place of great diversity, and there has always been new people coming who have changed the culture in order to experience the Sawa culture.

Artefacts in the gallery have been carefully compiled from thrown away materials that litter the environment. Once made into an artefact they form beautiful artefacts telling and representing Douala's history and cultures from a far behind era to the 21st century. The strength of the art works are in the fact that Cameroon, as a whole, and Douala, in particular, has all of a sudden become a dumping ground for electronic gadgets from the western worlds.