Borderlands
by Igshaan Adams
Gebedswolke (Prayer Clouds), 2021 – 23
Gold and silver link chain, copper wire and cotton twine, gold wire, gold chain and spray paint, polyester braid, silver memory wire, metal charms, copper, brass and silver wire, wood, plastic and crystal beads, cowrie and sea snail shells, galvanised steel and wood centre, gold and silver link chain and clear lacquer spray paint
Paypakkies Groei Nog Op Die Wingerde (Paypackets still growing on the vines), 2022
Wood, plastic, glass, metal beads, nickel-plated charms, gold memory wire and copper wire, steel, nylon and polyester braided rope, cotton ribbon
Heideveld, 2021
Wood, painted wood, plastic, glass, stone, precious stone, metal and bone beads, shells, nylon and polyester rope, cotton fabrics, wire and cotton twine
This installation by Igshaan Adams grows out of his expanded practice of weaving and his exploration of so called ‘desire lines’ in post-Apartheid South Africa, the informal pathways that are created over time through footfall, often acting as shortcuts. He understands these lines as ‘symbolic of a collective act of resistance by a community who have historically been segregated and marginalised through spatial planning. Intentionally or not, these pathways remain symbolic of carving out one’s own path, collectively or individually’.*
Borderlands
A ‘borderland’, according to the scholar Gloria E. Anzaldúa, is a ‘vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary’. Borderlands are spaces where two or more cultures meet, where different social classes encounter each other, where people of different races inhabit the same locales.
The artists in this section move beyond a border being a boundary that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’. Instead, they ask how borderlands — as emotionally charged spaces — might be sites for profound creativity. In what ways can the language of cartography and the aesthetics of borders be appropriated to subvert power? And what happens when borders are transgressed? Through varied textile practices, the artists Igshaan Adams, Cian Dayrit, T. Vinoja, Margarita Cabrera and Kimsooja try to understand, reject, embrace, keep alive or question borders, but above all they attempt to transcend them to find a new way of being.*
From the exhibition
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
(February – May 2024)
Textiles are vital to our lives. We are swaddled in them when we’re born, we wrap our bodies in them every day, and we’re shrouded in them when we die.
What does it mean to imagine a needle, a loom or a garment as a tool of resistance? How can textiles unpack, question, unspool, unravel and therefore reimagine the world around us?
Since the 1960s, textiles have become increasingly present in artistic practices for subversive ends. This is significant as the medium has been historically undervalued within the hierarchies of Western art history. Textiles have been considered ‘craft’ in opposition to definitions of ‘fine art’, gendered as feminine and marginalised by scholars and the art market. The 50 international artists in this show challenge these classifications, harnessing the medium to speak powerfully about intimate, everyday stories as well as wider socio-political narratives, teasing out these entangled concerns through a stitch, a knot, a braid, through the warp and the weft. These artists defy traditional expectations of textiles, embracing abstraction or figuration to push the boundaries of the medium. They draw on its material history to reveal ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade.
Rather than dictating a chronological history of fibre art, the exhibition is organised in thematic dialogues between artists — across both generations and geographies — to explore how artists have embraced textiles to critique or push up against regimes of power. Some artists work alone with solitary, near-meditative practices, while others reflect the shared approach that the medium often invites, working with collaborators in acts of community and solidarity. Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, these artworks communicate multi-layered stories about lived experience, invoking the vital issues embedded in fibre and thread.
[*Barbican Centre]
Taken at the Barbican Centre
Borderlands
by Igshaan Adams
Gebedswolke (Prayer Clouds), 2021 – 23
Gold and silver link chain, copper wire and cotton twine, gold wire, gold chain and spray paint, polyester braid, silver memory wire, metal charms, copper, brass and silver wire, wood, plastic and crystal beads, cowrie and sea snail shells, galvanised steel and wood centre, gold and silver link chain and clear lacquer spray paint
Paypakkies Groei Nog Op Die Wingerde (Paypackets still growing on the vines), 2022
Wood, plastic, glass, metal beads, nickel-plated charms, gold memory wire and copper wire, steel, nylon and polyester braided rope, cotton ribbon
Heideveld, 2021
Wood, painted wood, plastic, glass, stone, precious stone, metal and bone beads, shells, nylon and polyester rope, cotton fabrics, wire and cotton twine
This installation by Igshaan Adams grows out of his expanded practice of weaving and his exploration of so called ‘desire lines’ in post-Apartheid South Africa, the informal pathways that are created over time through footfall, often acting as shortcuts. He understands these lines as ‘symbolic of a collective act of resistance by a community who have historically been segregated and marginalised through spatial planning. Intentionally or not, these pathways remain symbolic of carving out one’s own path, collectively or individually’.*
Borderlands
A ‘borderland’, according to the scholar Gloria E. Anzaldúa, is a ‘vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary’. Borderlands are spaces where two or more cultures meet, where different social classes encounter each other, where people of different races inhabit the same locales.
The artists in this section move beyond a border being a boundary that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’. Instead, they ask how borderlands — as emotionally charged spaces — might be sites for profound creativity. In what ways can the language of cartography and the aesthetics of borders be appropriated to subvert power? And what happens when borders are transgressed? Through varied textile practices, the artists Igshaan Adams, Cian Dayrit, T. Vinoja, Margarita Cabrera and Kimsooja try to understand, reject, embrace, keep alive or question borders, but above all they attempt to transcend them to find a new way of being.*
From the exhibition
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
(February – May 2024)
Textiles are vital to our lives. We are swaddled in them when we’re born, we wrap our bodies in them every day, and we’re shrouded in them when we die.
What does it mean to imagine a needle, a loom or a garment as a tool of resistance? How can textiles unpack, question, unspool, unravel and therefore reimagine the world around us?
Since the 1960s, textiles have become increasingly present in artistic practices for subversive ends. This is significant as the medium has been historically undervalued within the hierarchies of Western art history. Textiles have been considered ‘craft’ in opposition to definitions of ‘fine art’, gendered as feminine and marginalised by scholars and the art market. The 50 international artists in this show challenge these classifications, harnessing the medium to speak powerfully about intimate, everyday stories as well as wider socio-political narratives, teasing out these entangled concerns through a stitch, a knot, a braid, through the warp and the weft. These artists defy traditional expectations of textiles, embracing abstraction or figuration to push the boundaries of the medium. They draw on its material history to reveal ideas relating to gender, labour, value, ecology, ancestral knowledge, and histories of oppression, extraction and trade.
Rather than dictating a chronological history of fibre art, the exhibition is organised in thematic dialogues between artists — across both generations and geographies — to explore how artists have embraced textiles to critique or push up against regimes of power. Some artists work alone with solitary, near-meditative practices, while others reflect the shared approach that the medium often invites, working with collaborators in acts of community and solidarity. Spanning intimate hand-crafted pieces to large-scale sculptural installations, these artworks communicate multi-layered stories about lived experience, invoking the vital issues embedded in fibre and thread.
[*Barbican Centre]
Taken at the Barbican Centre