Igshaan Adams: Weerhoud
The Hepworth Wakefield
22 June – 3 November 2024
Jaime-Lee, Dustin, 2023
Cotton twine, polypropylene and nylon rope, mohair wool,
plastic, glass and semi precious stone beads, silver-linked chain
and tiger tail wire. 198 x 290 cm
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy of the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects
Photo: Mario Todeschini
Jaime-Lee, Dustin (detail) 2023
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy of the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects.
Photo: Mario Todeschini
The Hepworth Wakefield presents a solo exhibition by South African artist Igshaan Adams. Entitled Weerhoud, meaning ‘Withheld’ in Afrikaans, the exhibition examines the impact of lived experiences and traumas on the human psyche, with a particular emphasis on the healing potential of movement. Adams will present three new commissions created specifically for the exhibition, consisting of two tapestries and one of his largest immersive ‘cloud’ installations to date. These new works are exhibited alongside a selection of existing sculptures and textile pieces. Weerhoud presents an exciting development in Igshaan Adams’ practice, shifting his focus from domestic spaces and landscapes to the body.
Courtesy the artist
Photo by Mario Todeschini
Igshaan Adams was born in 1982 in Bonteheuwel, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. He grew up navigating the complexities of identity under apartheid’s racial classification system. His work spans a wide spectrum, encompassing intricate tapestries, expansive floor and wall-based installations, and immersive suspended sculptures. Igshaan Adams’ work focuses on the nuanced remnants of human experiences, examining the impressions – ranging from the barely perceptible to the obvious – left by individuals within their homes, cities, natural environments, and their own bodies. His practice challenges apartheid’s attempt to confine people through racialised spaces, portraying the body as a catalyst for resistance against dominant structures. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award and subsequently featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide, going on to present his work at the 2022 Venice Biennale and the 2023 Bienal de São Paulo.
Igshaan Adams’ new tapestries are derived from an ongoing series of dance workshops in which he collaborates with young dancers from the Garage Dance Ensemble, a dance group based in O’okiep within South Africa’s Northern Cape Province. The dancers are encouraged to intuitively interact with a large canvas placed on top of freshly painted linoleum, leaving behind traces and creating abstract paint marks with their bodies. The resulting ‘paintings’ are then used as inspiration to create tapestries. Igshaan Adams considers the dancers’ bodies and movements as repositories of memories and trauma and is interested in recording in his tapestries a trace of their psyche. He understands ‘movement as a medium through which one can mend internal brokenness, even when clarity or memory is lacking.’ Igshaan Adams views each resulting tapestry as deeply personal to the dancers, often naming them after specific performers. Adorned with beads, chains, stones, shells, ribbons and ropes, some areas are deliberately left unwoven, revealing negative space, further evoking a sense of fragmentation or incompleteness.
Igshaan Adams’ new cloud sculpture offers visitors an immersive experience, allowing them to walk through the cloud as they navigate the exhibition space. This cloud installation will integrate wires, beads, and various found objects, such as shower heads, lampshades, and chairs. Through these elements, he reflects on how past experiences shape our present identities.
Oorskot, 2016
Courtesy of the artist. Private collection
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects
Ouma, 2016
Courtesy of the artist. Private collection
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects
Ameen, 2018
Courtesy of the artist
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects
Bent, 2018
Courtesy of the artist
© Igshaan Adams
Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and blank projects
Igshaan Adams: Weerhoud also revisits works created between 2014 and 2019, including some that have been deliberately degraded by time, showing signs of age and fragmentation. Some artworks, including Ameen (2018) have been exposed to the elements and damaged, with scars becoming integral to their composition. Others evoke a feeling of detachment from a larger whole, appearing vulnerable and open to influence. A tapestry titled, Bent (2018) Adams explains is ‘akin to a flower bending towards sunlight to absorb rays more effectively.’ These earlier works, along with the new commissions, ask what spaces, materials, and bodies can encompass; what remains held within us; and how we adjust to our environment, whether it be in positive or negative ways.
Marie-Charlotte Carrier, Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield, said ‘Audiences need to experience Igshaan Adams’s art to fully appreciate the incredible skill and care that goes into creating each very detailed and powerful new work. I am excited to share the artist’s most ambitious work to date at The Hepworth Wakefield this summer and capture Adams’ new artistic focus on the body.’
The exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield is accompanied by a book featuring essays by Curator Marie-Charlotte Carrier, Curator and Writer Nkgopoleng Moloi, Garage Dance Ensemble co-founder Alfred Hinkel, and an interview with Igshaan Adams led by Marie-Charlotte Carrier and Laura Smith, Director of Collections and Exhibitions.
THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD
Gallery Walk, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 5AW
