Traditionally, the Malawian dugout canoe is made completely out of wood. But on a walk on the shores of Lake Malawi, one also encounters the dugout made of a single tree trunk, which has in time accumulated plastic, tin, felt, metal, tar and paint on its body. For the past three years, Massa Lemu, assistant professor in the VCUarts Department of Sculpture and Extended Media, has been working with the Ozhopé art collective making art with and documenting this dugout canoe. In this presentation, Lemu will show that this dugout canoe speaks of Malawi as a dynamic place that has transformed in time. This dugout is “texxt,” with a textural surface where one can read about social histories, threatened ecosystems, neoliberal do-gooderism and resistance from below.

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