Prekese

Ella Badu, Prekese, 2024. Recycled brass and nylon (sapo). Photo © Ross Coulter

Overview

Prekese is part of an ongoing exploration into adornment as a vessel for memory, care, and cultural continuity. The work draws from the evocative form and symbolic resonance of the prekese pod, a fruit native to West Africa and widely used in cooking, traditional medicine, and spiritual practice.

Prekese is believed to ward off negative energies and restore balance. Its name in Twi translates to “soup perfume,” a nod to its fragrant presence in both the home and ritual spaces.

Material & Process

Hand-cast in recycled brass during my apprenticeship with Ashanti metalsmiths in Kumasi. These methods, rooted in generational knowledge and community exchange, honour a legacy of material stewardship.

The use of repurposed metal reflects local traditions of transformation — where worn jewellery and discarded industrial metal fittings are melted down and reshaped — aligning the work with values of sustainability and renewal.

^Process photo of casting, 2024. Photo © Lilah Benetti

Sapo & the Labour of Care

Inserted into the hollow of two prekese forms is sapo, a nylon washcloth used daily across West African households. Its vibrant colour and textured weave offer a soft counterpoint to the weight of metal.

Sapo represents the labour of care , the repetitive, everyday acts of washing, tending, and cleansing that sustain families and traditions across time and distance.

Conceptual Frame

This work reflects on the tension between permanence and impermanence, the solidity of cast metal, the flexibility of woven nylon, and the quiet power of ritual.

What endures is not only what is preserved, but what is lived — the intimate, often unseen gestures repeated across diasporas, dislocation, and generational change.

Exhibition

Prekese was created for the exhibition First Hand Experiences. Second Hand Stories, which explores personal narrative and collective memory within diasporic and intergenerational contexts.