Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku (b. 1994, Cape Coast, Ghana) is a multidisciplinary artist and civil engineer. Growing up within the rich cultural heritage of the Fante Tribe, he absorbed traditions that shaped his ideals of freedom as a way of life. His grandmother’s lavish fashion sense and expansive textile collection—she was of royal lineage—also played a formative role.

For Aggrey, clothing extends far beyond utility; it is an outward expression of identity and how we wish to be perceived.

A background in civil engineering led him to explore the reuse of discarded fabric and textile waste as part of his final year project in university. Experimenting with textile waste recycling in the construction industry opened a door to installations incorporating secondhand clothing, known locally as “dead white man’s clothing.”

Sourcing these materials from landfills, beaches, and Kantamanto Market—the world’s second-largest thrift market—Aggrey creates vibrant, abstract works that bristle with color and energy. The garments, once cherished and later discarded, are rich with history. This cyclical narrative of ownership, loss, and renewal informs his practice.

Aggrey’s engineering expertise and artistic approach fuse in a single body of work. He dyes, coats, and manipulates salvaged textiles until they transform into a completely new medium of expression. In doing so, his practice interrogates the ideas of waste colonialism, modern-day slavery, freedom of social identity, and self-liberation against the backdrop of industrialization, consumerism, climate change, and sustainability.