Igshaan Adams

 

Igshaan adams (South African, born 1982) qualifies for museum display by just about every criteria now trending in the mainstream artworld. Person of color ? Check. Gender fluid ? Check. Postcolonial country? Check. Multi-media? Check. More about concept than form? Check. More like an investigation than a declaration? Check. None of which is necessarily bad - just as the reverse - which would have been typical for the artworld one hundred yards ago - was not necessarily good. 

 
And his work is politically progressive - at least regarding the oppressed people of his South African township who are the subject of his suggested narratives. (The intended buyers, of course, are the global elites) 

If you wish to explore “the potential of transdisciplinarity through the use of theories of diffraction, and postcolonial feminist subjectivity”, “Desire Lines” is the series for you. 

The design of these woven pieces begins with worn patches of cheap linoleum cut from the kitchen floors of low rent apartments. In the background is a rather tedious, repetitive , geometric design. In the foreground is a pattern of wear in those areas where people stood most often. Coincidentally, I have similar worn patches near the sink and stove on my cheap kitchen floor - and I can report that it is indeed unsightly. Or actually, that is an understatement. My worn linoleum is damn ugly,- like a smooth young face half eaten away by dreadful infection. 

But Adams is quite an aesthete. Though his designs begin with the ugly, the finished pieces have a lush, gentle, understated beauty. Like kintsugi, the Japanese art of filling the cracks of broken pottery with gold, he has made the best of a bad situation. But why start with a bad situation if you have the option not to? Gallery signage tells us that “Adam highlights the material aspects of these lived spaces as well as the personal stories they hold.” But this is just art-talk nonsense. Worn linoleum tells us nothing about those who repeatedly stepped on it - though it might suggest something about those who want art to echo it. They prefer comfort to thrill. They would rather accommodate than seek. And on top of that, Adams’ Victorian aesthetic overwhelms the senses rather than surprises them. 

 
This installation includes “sculpture clouds” of tangled wire that rise off the flat fabric on the floor like clouds of dust. Signage does not explain them, though in other exhibits they have been said to represent the barbed wire that once transcribed the township neighborhoods.  A few other pieces, especially a giant rose called “Al Muhyee - giver of life” present other directions Adams has taken in his work. 

The Art Institute of Chicago has a gallery devoted to fabric art and historic examples have often been used to look up and glorify the top of the social order rather than to look down and empathize with the bottom. That’s fine with me since I prefer to see others as beautiful rather than see myself as compassionate and politically correct. But I do hope the museum has acquired a piece or two by Adams to cultivate contrast in future group shows. Viva la difference !

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