ARTISTS
Igshaan Adams: Prim锚re Wentelbaan
Thomas Dane Gallery London is proud to present Prim锚re Wentelbaan, the gallery鈥檚 first exhibition with Igshaan Adams. Adams鈥檚 cross-disciplinary practice combines weaving, sculpture, performance and installation to explore ideas of personal and political history, race, religion and sexuality. Adams鈥檚 densely crafted work brings together cultural and religious references which map and mark his own history: the geometric patterns of linoleum floors found throughout the homes of friends and neighbours, the geographical and socio-political terrain of his environment, and the material and iconographies of Islam.
For the exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery, Adams presents three large-scale tapestries and hanging 鈥榗loud鈥� sculptures, conceived as an interconnected installation across the gallery walls and floor. The work reflects on the psycho-geographical environment, geopolitical context and sites of memory of his childhood in Bonteheuwel, a working-class segregated township on the Cape Flats southeast of Cape Town, founded as a so-called Coloured district in the 1957 Group Areas Act. Made using quotidian materials such as beads, rope, wire, glass and shells, these intensely intricate works elevate the material aspects of lived spaces and illuminate the personal and political histories and stories that they hold. The title 鈥楶rim锚re Wentelbaan鈥� [Primary Orbit] alludes to the sites into which Adams first ventured as a child and adolescent, and serves as a way for Adams to think about how his early environment shaped his world-view.
Prim锚re Wentelbaan is an expansion of Adams鈥檚 body of work exploring 鈥榙esire lines鈥� 鈥� pathways of unofficial routes gradually worn over time by repeated pedestrian travel. Throughout the Apartheid era such pathways were used to connect segregated communities that were forcibly separated by man-made boundaries, highways and open ground, physically and economically excluding communities of colour. To Adams these 鈥榙esire lines鈥� represent more than journeys borne of necessity or convenience, but freedom and transgression against deeply enforced and oppressive structures. Working with satellite imagery to create drawings that trace these pathways, Adams invites us to witness them from above, making visible collective histories of resistance, desire and struggle, and transforming them into sites of agency.
Recommended for you
Thomas Dane Gallery London is proud to present Prim锚re Wentelbaan, the gallery鈥檚 first exhibition with Igshaan Adams. Adams鈥檚 cross-disciplinary practice combines weaving, sculpture, performance and installation to explore ideas of personal and political history, race, religion and sexuality. Adams鈥檚 densely crafted work brings together cultural and religious references which map and mark his own history: the geometric patterns of linoleum floors found throughout the homes of friends and neighbours, the geographical and socio-political terrain of his environment, and the material and iconographies of Islam.
For the exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery, Adams presents three large-scale tapestries and hanging 鈥榗loud鈥� sculptures, conceived as an interconnected installation across the gallery walls and floor. The work reflects on the psycho-geographical environment, geopolitical context and sites of memory of his childhood in Bonteheuwel, a working-class segregated township on the Cape Flats southeast of Cape Town, founded as a so-called Coloured district in the 1957 Group Areas Act. Made using quotidian materials such as beads, rope, wire, glass and shells, these intensely intricate works elevate the material aspects of lived spaces and illuminate the personal and political histories and stories that they hold. The title 鈥楶rim锚re Wentelbaan鈥� [Primary Orbit] alludes to the sites into which Adams first ventured as a child and adolescent, and serves as a way for Adams to think about how his early environment shaped his world-view.
Prim锚re Wentelbaan is an expansion of Adams鈥檚 body of work exploring 鈥榙esire lines鈥� 鈥� pathways of unofficial routes gradually worn over time by repeated pedestrian travel. Throughout the Apartheid era such pathways were used to connect segregated communities that were forcibly separated by man-made boundaries, highways and open ground, physically and economically excluding communities of colour. To Adams these 鈥榙esire lines鈥� represent more than journeys borne of necessity or convenience, but freedom and transgression against deeply enforced and oppressive structures. Working with satellite imagery to create drawings that trace these pathways, Adams invites us to witness them from above, making visible collective histories of resistance, desire and struggle, and transforming them into sites of agency.
Artists on show
Related articles
What I find important for artmaking is to have an existential question: my exhibitions always start from a provocation, some idea that has bothered me since I was young.
Thomas Dane Gallery, London, is now presenting Prim锚re Wentelbaan, the gallery鈥檚 first exhibition with Igshaan Adams (b.1982, Cape Town).
Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic picks his top 5 Art Exhibitions to see this Winter, all within walking distance of each other.
