I took a trip to the Hayward gallery a few weekends ago. To see an exhibition called Redoubt (Artist of the Week 20.) by Mathew Barney. When I was at the exhibition I realised it was actually a two featured piece. The second artist being Igshaan Adams who has captured the essence of fun, creativity and elegant beauty through his work. Adams is a fairly accomplished artist who has had nine solo exhibitions and his work being displayed at some of the most famous galleries around the world.

The exhibition was in the right lower floor gallery in Hayward. It took place in a well-lit room with beach wood flooring. A simply designed room that elevated the work being displayed.

The exhibition was called 'Kicking Dust' it is on at the Hayward from 19th May - 25th July 2021.

The exhibition was a collection of large sculptural installations along with wall tapestries/art. They collated together displaying weaving. Cloud-like dust balls that you’d see in the desert, kicking/picking themselves up from the dry sandy floor. 

Igshaan Adam says the exhibition 'centres around the idea of the imprints that we collectively leave behind as we move through spaces, both private and public.'

Igshaan Adams was born in 1982 in South Africa. His work is focused on his life with the context of racial, sexual and religious boundaries.

Igshaan Adams creates his work from different wooden materials and beads. The work has an appearance of been flat but it’s only once you get closer to it you realise the levels the intricacy and chaos. They are beautiful. Beads upon beads upon corkscrews upon wool upon a string; it’s a chaotic environment where you don’t know where ends or where it begins. The materials I could see commonly used were thread, beads, wire, fabric and cotton twine.

‘I’m interested in the personal stories recorded on the surface. What is recorded is not necessarily always a factual account but can be what is imagined - a collaboration of mythmaking and meaning-making.’

The work had an unusual outstanding texture to it. It bounces off the wall. The tapestry’s/materials were made up of all different finishes, textures and colours. What stood out was the colour palettes. The shades working together in harmony. Adams clearly chooses his colours carefully, everything compliments each other whether that's the blue clashing with the orange or the constant use of teel.

What I really liked about the piece was the colours on the work that was displayed on the floor, a mix-mash of designs, built up together. Near the edges they became fibrous, looking like the piece had been torn apart and left on the floor. This is a very creative way of creating a tapestry.

The floor pieces are called desire lines. Desire lines are seen as a path that pedestrians can take rather than following set rules. In the gallery you could see people walking in all different directions viewing what pieces they wanted to see first, walking around in an unorganised manner which is what (I believe) Adams wanted to achieve.

'Kicking Dust' is based on the South African style of dance called 'Rieldans' which is known to be one of the oldest indigenous dancing styles in the Northern Cape. 

The theme of journeys and mapping out roads to get to a finished product is evident in Adams work; the journey, the collection of cultures and materials. The level of experimentation, how the process wasn’t finished quickly or solved easily. It's clear that Adams has spent years working on designs, techniques and ultimately working on creating a meaningful and beautiful finished design.

In his work, there is a lot of Islamic designs. Adams was brought up Catholic then discovered Islam and converted. He grew up gay in a homophobic society and he is also mixed race. He uses this unusual circumstance in upbringing to give him a unique edge and also to educate people about the importance of acceptance and doing what you love.

Islamic geometric designs feature in his tapestries. He has taken his culture and beliefs and turned them into a beautiful body of work without exploiting them. In his work it is key that nothing is too obvious, you must interpret it in your own way.

Adams shows the purity of mind and soul through the calmness of the pieces.

As well as these tapestries there was dust like clouds floating around the front of the gallery these are meant to represent the impact of human motion and share memories of a specific time and location. They were quite fun pieces to look at; made up of wire different spiky and sharp materials with beading which look like necklaces, weaved around the circumference.

Some of the piece’s titles convert to ‘over the threshold,’ ‘barrier,’ and ‘around the corner,’ all fairly loose description which is nice as it kind of lets the viewer interpret the piece the way they want to.

The gallery had a Q&A section, Adams said he got his first job at a healthy nutritional centre on the Cape Flats, he worked with mothers and children with the aim to teach craft skills and help them produce products that would sell to tourists. This happened in the 1980s to raise money in an impoverished area.

He says the pieces he has created are made by these women as a collaboration. When I was in the exhibition I thought it incredible how these were handmade. The hours they must had taken and the level of skilled detail and concentration is incredible. Adams says he has four women working as weavers and each person’s approach to how they weave and how they bead is completely different; no two are the same.

Although the exhibition room was small there was so much packed into this room that it didn’t matter. If you have the time and the patience you could look at his work for hours and each time find a new thing, a new bit to look at or to comment on or to admire. His work is truly unique and wonderful. I do believe in a few years his popularity and his name will be much more well-known and everyone will be fighting to get a ticket to his next show.

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Above I have displayed my own photos of the gallery.

If you are in Southbank London go check it out.

That was my artist of the week on Igshaan Adams.