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On 10 April, Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama unveiled an installation that transformed the Barbican’s Lakeside Terrace with 2,000 square meters of bespoke woven cloth. The Purple Hibiscus Commission formed part of the Barbican’s eagerly anticipated exhibition Unravel: The Power & Politics of Textiles in Art (see page 91) is displayed on the terrace. The hand-stitched panels are set against the pick-hammering concrete, and the vibrant palette reflects allyship and the building of new alliances that underpin the installation. Named after Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, this installation has Mahama wrapping the Barbican terrace in panels of pink and purple cloth embroidered with 100 batakaris – traditional robes worn by northern Ghanaian people. Batakaris hold great significance for Ghanaians, they are passed down through families from generation to generation, and the textiles carry the endurance of traditional belief
Image: Ibrahim Mahama, Purple Hibiscus, 2023-2024.
systems and intergenerational knowledge. Mahama has a deep interest in the life cycles of these garments and their embedded histories. The artist is acclaimed for using textiles to explore the space where art and architecture meet, with recent installations at the Venice and Sharjah Biennials, as well as A Friend, 2019, where Mahama wrapped the Bastioni di Porta Venezia in Milan in jute sacks. For this new commission, he collaborated with women weavers, and sewing collectives in Ghana. The Alui Mahama sports stadium in Tamale provided the studio space in which the impressive work was created, “The scale of the material forms needed some level of freedom, which the space gifted,” says Mahama. At the core of Mahama’s practice is his dedication to ensuring that Ghanaians and all those outside mainstram society have the opportunity to engage with art. ••• Ibrahim Mahama: Purple Hibiscus, 10 April – 18 August 2024, Barbican, London, UK. barbican.org.uk
