Ghanaian artist and fashion designer Beatrice “Bee” Arthur is turning discarded clothing into commercial and environmental commentary, highlighting the economic potential of waste generated by the country’s large second-hand clothing industry.
Arthur will unveil JEAN-ESIS: Chapter One, a 3-by-3-metre installation made largely from used jeans and materials associated with second-hand clothing bales, at BEYOND CREATION: Humanity, Nature and Spirituality: A Universal Message in Accra on Oct. 5.
The work reflects a growing effort to treat discarded fashion not only as an environmental problem but also as a potential source of value for artists, designers and businesses operating in Ghana’s circular economy.
Arthur, founder of the Waste Afterlife Art Movement (WAAM), uses second-hand clothing, old wigs, mannequins, textile remnants, sequins and other discarded fashion materials to create artworks.
Her approach effectively turns materials that have lost their original commercial purpose into inputs for another market, challenging the traditional linear model in which clothing is produced, consumed and eventually discarded. “We do not recycle; we give it an afterlife as art.”
From clothing waste to commercial value
The economic opportunity is particularly relevant to Ghana because of the scale of its second-hand clothing trade.
Accra’s Kantamanto Market has developed into a major ecosystem around imported used clothing, supporting traders, repairers, tailors, upcyclers and other businesses that extend the useful life of garments.
But the same system also generates materials that cannot easily be resold or repaired.
Arthur’s JEAN-ESIS installation focuses on that part of the supply chain, using jeans and bale forms to draw attention to what happens after clothing has moved through international collection, export and resale networks.
The installation effectively asks whether materials regarded as waste can become inputs for new businesses, creative products and other economic activities.
For Ghana’s creative economy, that creates a potential intersection between fashion, manufacturing, environmental sustainability and entrepreneurship.
A different business model for fashion
Arthur’s work illustrates a model in which value does not end when a garment can no longer be sold in its original form.
Discarded jeans can become art, fashion accessories, furniture, interior materials or other products. That creates opportunities for businesses capable of collecting, sorting, designing and processing textile waste.
Such models could also create additional income streams for people already operating within Ghana’s second-hand clothing ecosystem.
Arthur has increasingly focused her work on this intersection between fashion and waste.
In 2025, she curated Echoes of the Landfill at the Museum of Science and Technology in Accra. In June 2026, she worked with members of WAAM on Museum Madonna Macramé, another installation built around discarded materials.
The projects have positioned waste as both an environmental issue and a creative resource.
Cultural economy meets sustainability
JEAN-ESIS will form part of BEYOND CREATION, an international exhibition bringing together 40 artists from Ghana, Africa and the diaspora, as well as countries including the United Kingdom, United States and Jamaica.
The exhibition is centred on humanity, nature and spirituality, but its international participation also creates a platform for cultural exchange and for Ghanaian creative practitioners to engage with wider markets.
For Ghana, where policymakers have increasingly identified the creative industries as an area for employment and enterprise development, the commercialisation of discarded materials offers another potential business segment.
The opportunity extends beyond artists. Collection companies, designers, manufacturers, retailers and social enterprises could potentially participate in supply chains that transform waste into new products.
The challenge is building viable economics around those activities. Collection, sorting, transportation, processing and access to markets can determine whether discarded materials become valuable inputs or remain waste.
Arthur’s work puts that question at the centre of the exhibition: whether the material left behind by the fashion economy can itself become part of a new economy.
BEYOND CREATION opens at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5 at the Accra Art Centre and runs until Nov. 4, 2026. The exhibition is curated by Nuna Adisenu-Doe and Andrea Walter Ghia and co-organised by the Embassy of Italy in Accra.
