‘skarrelbaan’ | grit and beauty in the works of Igshaan Adams - Bubblegum Club

‘skarrelbaan’ | grit and beauty in the works of Igshaan Adams

I’ve been thinking a lot about the work of Igshaan Adams in relation to Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Using abstraction to guide him, Marx became well known as one of the most influential architects but for his work as a painter, ecologist and naturalist in the region.

The patterns and intricate images of landscapes that find themselves translated into abstract paintings can be read in Adams’ work as a translation from pixel to fabric, shells, glass, rope and beads.

Adams’ latest solo exhibition at blank in Cape Town is titled skarrelbaan. Accompanied by a poem of the same name written by musical artist Jitsvinger, the show brings together tapestries, clouds and floor pieces that reflect on ways of moving through the world. 

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Igshaan Adams, Langa; 2021.

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (Prayer clouds); 2022.

Thinking about Adams’ work outside of the question of translation is an impossible task. Of course, translation functions on multiple levels here — ideas into form, Afrikaans into English, but perhaps more importantly, as an attempt to translate one’s experiences into something coherent, legible (again an impossible task).

And where translation fails — or at least breaks — becomes an interesting (perhaps messy) loophole that creates the possibility for new ways of understanding and new ways of relating.  

In Adams’ work translation is often performed or performs itself.

For instance, works are titled in Afrikaans with their English translation in parenthesis; Bonteheuwelstasie (Bonteheuwel Station), 2021 or Haar verwags was groot (Her expectations were great), 2021.

I’m less interested in the politics of linguistic translation here, than I am in what this deliberate relocation indicates about how we think we are heard vs not heard, seen vs not seen or understood as we move through the world.

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (Prayer clouds) detail; 2022.

Igshaan Adams, Bonteheuwelstasie (Bonteheuwel Station) detail; 2021.

Igshaan Adams

 Igshaan Adams, skarrelbaan; 2022. Installation view (detail).

My favourite piece in this body of work is Bonteheuwelstasie (Bonteheuwel Station), 2021.

With subtle shades of blue and different variations of brown — as well as a diagonal pathway running from the top left to the bottom right — the work evokes watery tracts; aqueducts, rivers and narrow lagoons.

This idyllic image juxtaposes itself to the narrative arc of the exhibition, which speaks of hustle, difficulty and being on the outside looking in.

There’s a tension here but it’s an interesting one. And maybe these pathways can also be read as potential loopholes that allow one to navigate and circumvent restrictions.

To return to the question of translation again — in relation to the exhibition title skarrelbaan — hustle is also an interesting word.

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Bonteheuwelstasie (Bonteheuwel Station); 2021.

Igshaan Adams

 Igshaan Adams, skarrelbaan; 2022. Installation view.

In The White Album, Joan Didion offers an account of a young man describing himself as a hustler, he explains that a “hustler is someone who can talk – not just to men, to women, too. Can keep company. Wash a car. Lots of things make up a hustler.” He continues that “there are a lot of lonely people in this town, man.”

Although this account doesn’t give us a clearly intellectual or well articulated definition of a hustler, it definitely portrays the feelings of frustration associated with the condition of hustling.

Similarly, in this exhibition we can’t point directly and neatly to the real meaning of “skarrelbaan”, we can simply begin to feel it.

And of course the harsh context of hustling was long ago co-opted by capitalist bros who encouraged everyone to engage in a “side hustle” — which now reads as a sanitised, “cleaner” version of the concept.

Perhaps, the kind of hustle that Adams is referring to has to do with grit and grittiness. If that’s the case, what better way to speak of hustle than to take found objects (can also be read as trash) such as beads, plastic, chains and ropes and to translate and transform them into objects of beauty. 

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Gebedswolke (Prayer clouds); 2022.

 Igshaan Adams, skarrelbaan; 2022. Installation view.

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Langa (detail); 2021.

Igshaan Adams

Igshaan Adams, Bonteheuwelstasie (Bonteheuwel Station); 2021.

Igshaan Adams

 Igshaan Adams, skarrelbaan; 2022. Installation view.

Igshaan Adams, Langa (detail); 2021.

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