Wrapping the Gods

An exploration of plastic, harvest, and worship

Image courtesy of Gladstone Hotel and photographer Brianna Roy

ASASE YAA (a subsidiary of Bayer/Monsanto)

Asase Yaa is the Earth goddess of fertility and the harvest of the Ashanti people in Ghana. Worship of Asase spread to Jamaica with the slave trade.

In the Akan religion, still practiced in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, Asase Yaa is the wife of the creator god, sometimes called Nyame. She is second to him in the pantheon but more powerfully tied to humans as he is distant and does not interact with mortals.

Asase Yaa is worshipped in the fields, rather than at a temple. By dance and ritual, the Akan people connect to their ancestors.

Bayer is the multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company which purchased Monsanto for $63 billion. This was ‘part of its reinvention as a life-science firm with a focus on health and agriculture.’

MATERIALS: Cardboard, pringles container, Quality Street chocolate tinfoil wrapper, Quality Street chocolate coloured plastic over-wrap, Ferrero Rocher gold wrapper, Hershey’s Kisses Valentine striped wrappers, mod podge, produce advertisement.  

Wrapped Crucifix

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