Visual Rhetoric of Wax Print Fabric Scraps: Symbolism in Fragmented Imagery

This study examines how contemporary Ghanaian visual artist Cistus Abrefa Owusu (Known as Cistus art) employs visual rhetorical elements in his African wax print fabric artworks. Using visual analysis, thematic coding, and qualitative interpretive methods, the research investigates how textile fragments communicate complex notions of identity, heritage, and cultural continuity. The analysis reveals that wax print fabric scraps function as visual metaphors depicting cultural memory, diasporic experiences, and persistent African artistic traditions. The study concludes that the artist deploys symbolic language to create textile fragment artworks that intersections of material culture, African esthetics, and contemporary art representation politics.