The Zeitz MOCAA Atelier residency is part of the museum’s ongoing programme that kickstarted in 2019. Igshaan Adams intends to use the Atelier as an opportunity to foreground the people, practices and networks that are so intricately part of his work.
On level 2 of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), a multi-gallery area houses an intimate setup where works of art still in progress provide visitors with a glimpse into an artist’s studio. The studio in question is that of Cape Town-based artist Igshaan Adams, who, alongside his team, will inhabit the space through Sunday, 23 April 2023 for a studio residency titled ‘Not Working (Working Title)’.
The opportunity will further allow him to rethink the paths and routes of his practice and revive projects that have lingered in his storage for ‘not quite working yet’. He also hopes to explore the movement and dance traditions of Namaqualand, bringing performative aspects into his work.
Storm Janse van Rensburg, Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, says: “The Atelier provides an exploratory space for artists that is also open to the public. Visitors to Zeitz MOCAA have unique access and insight into the resident artist’s modes of production and processes, and we have found that this bridges the unseen divide between the artists and public.
“Adams works collaboratively and communally to produce increasingly complex and large-scale works and will use the residency to reconsider the pathways and routes of his practice.” ‘Not Working (Working Title)’ reflects the open and experimental nature of the Atelier that Adams and his studio team will work within over the next six months. It is furthermore a reflection of his works that have been reconsidered and given a second life.
“My intention during my time at the museum is to re-evaluate my work that presents in different forms, and to re-look, re-visit and re-work artworks that never had the opportunity to be seen outside of the studio,” says the artist.
The museum’s past residents include Thania Petersen, Kemang Lehulere and Haroon Gunn-Salie.
WHAT: Zeitz MOCAA Atelier Residency – Igshaan Adams
WHERE: Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) – level 2, Silo District, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: The residency runs to 23 April 2023 | Gallery hours Tues to Sun 10h00 – 18h00
INFO: E communications@zeitzmocaa.museum | VISIT
PHOTO: Courtesy of the artist and blank projects, Cape Town
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About Igshaan Adams
Igshaan Adams’s practice coalesces performance, weaving, sculpture and installation. Born in Bonteheuwel, a township in Cape Town, South Africa, Adams draws upon his background to contest racial, sexual and religious boundaries.This intersectional topography remains visible through his practice and serves as a palimpsest upon which traces of personal histories are inscribed and reinscribed.
“I’m interested in the personal stories record on the surface,” he explains. “What is recorded is not necessarily always a factual account but can be what is imagined — a combination of myth-making and meaning-making.”
To date, Adams has held solo exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York and SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah (all United States); Kunsthalle Zürich (Switzerland); Hayward Gallery in London (United Kingdom); Akershus Kunstsenter in Oslo (Norway); A Tale of a Tub in Rotterdam and Rongwrong Gallery in Amsterdam (both The Netherlands); and blank projects, Stevenson Gallery and AVA Gallery in Cape Town (all South Africa).
He has also participated in numerous group shows, both locally and internationally. These include the 23rd Triennale Milano, Unknown Unknowns: An Introduction to Mysteries (2022); Slowly Arriving (2021) at Kunsthaus Baselland in Basel, Switzerland; I have made a place (2021) at Norval Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa; Who Are We Are Who (2020) at the BRAUNSFELDER in Cologne, Germany; Allied with Power (2020) at Perez Art Museum in Miami, United States; Risk (2019) at A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa; Ngoma: Art and Cosmology (2019) at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Mapping Black Identities (2019) at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota, United States; Material Insanity (2019) at the Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marakech, Morocco; and In This Imperfect Present Moment (2018) at the Seattle Art Museum in Washington, United States. Adams is currently participating in the 59th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Forthcoming group exhibitions he will partake in are Dream home at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, and the Islamic Arts Biennale that will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in early 2023.
Adams works are represented in the permanent collections of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden; the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota (all United States); Inhotim Museum (Brazil); the Iziko South African National Gallery and the University of Cape Town collection in Cape Town, and the Standard Bank collection in Johannesburg (all South Africa).
