黑料不打烊

Casey Kaplan is pleased to present Igshaan Adams鈥� second solo exhibition Vastrapplek, literally translating from Afrikaans to 鈥渉old fast and stomp in place.鈥�

To secure a foothold is to root one鈥檚 body to the earth, to bury one鈥檚 foot so strongly in place that it is grounded and simultaneously ready to propel forward. This is the movement of the Vastrappers, the adolescent dancers of the Rieldans, a version of the indigenous South African dance Igshaan Adams witnessed as a child in the Northern Cape region. Centered around the concept of migration (of individuals and communities), Adams here adopts the language of dance as a connector of tribes, blood lines, and histories. His own narrative is embedded in this landscape 鈥� the earth holds the memories of his grandparent鈥檚 courtship dance, a symbolic precursor to the racial and religious complexities of his youth. By embracing the cultural vestiges of post-apartheid Cape Town, Adams overlaps a colonialist tradition with modern South African expression. As the dancers stomp the earth in an attempt to flatten it, they simultaneously kick up dust in an opposite action, leaving behind tracks in the dirt akin to a record of their current, lived experience.

For Vastrapplek, Adams focuses on the isolated area of these dancers鈥� terrain and photographs the resulting imprints. The tracks in the dust are emboldened with a powder pigment and captured in print. Each image is then translated from an abstracted template into intricately woven tapestries in a collaboration with the artist鈥檚 studio community, and made with locally sourced materials like wood, stone, and glass beads, nylon rope, silver and gold chain, and silk, mohair, and wool ropes purchased in Cape Town. The granular surface produces a realistic effect; the undulating waves of the dirt and the sun鈥檚 position on the final footmarks, accentuate the contours of the cut earth and produce a relief-like composition. In Dit Voel Soos n Ewige Dans Sonder Einde of Begin (it feels like an eternal dance without end or beginning), Adams uses mohair for the first time to illuminate the sun鈥檚 path. Black and navy stone beads interrupt the plane, enhancing the contrast between negative and positive space within the ground. While dark in palette, upon further inspection, bursts of unnatural colors highlight the tapestries鈥� surface, producing an abstracted version of Adams鈥� photographs. The vastness of the tapestries further mimic the scope of the Northern Cape region. Viewers are absorbed by the various rolling landscapes, confronted by the individual stories embedded in their topography.