Middag Son Maak Min Verskil (midday sun makes little difference)
2022
Wooden, acrylic coated, plastic, glass, stone, bone and metal beads, mixed braid, polyester and nylon ropes, fabric dye, threading wire, and cotton twine

Duister Omsingel
2021
Wood, plastic, stone, glass and shell beads, polyester and nylon rope, chain, cotton twine

Igshaan Adams (b. 1982) was born in Cape Town, South Africa. In his tapestries and textile installations, Adams engages with the gaps—the information that is seemingly absent, overlooked or rendered invisible in the spaces we inhabit individually and collectively. Through the beads, shells, glass, rope, wire and found objects he uses to compose his weavings, Adams highlights the material aspects of lived spaces along with the personal stories held within them.

Adams’s hometown, Bonteheuwel, South Africa, is a key source of inspiration. This predominantly working-class township in southeast Cape Town was founded in the 1960s as part of the forced segregation during the Apartheid era. Adams approaches Bonteheuwel both as a deeply personal space, imbued with childhood memories and a network of familial relationships, and a politically charged space, shaped by violence and generational trauma. Neither can erase the other; both are always present.