Calixte Dakpogan’s masks and sculptures are forged from metal scraps and repurposed consumer goods, integrating anything from steel frames, pens, cassettes, fuel tanks, and soda bottles to form figurative works and abstract assemblages. Dakpogan believes his materials have been “burdened with time and transformed by usage, conferring a degree of vitality,” he says. Deeply rooted in his blacksmithing ancestry, Vodun heritage, and the material culture of his hometown—specifically the abundance abandoned and wrecked cars—Dakpogan considers his appropriation of useless, disparate objects into new configurations a symbolic act of hope and renewal.