Igshaan Adams is a South African artist born in 1982.
His work can be seen as an ongoing investigation into his personal hybridity: Adams is a mixed-race but was classified as “colored” under apartheid; he is a practicing Muslim but raised by Christian grandparents; and homosexual.
His work goes beyond these predetermined identities towards a deeper exploration of the self.
As he said: “I was so keenly interested in identity, specifically my political identity: my body, my race, my gender, my sexuality, and my experiences according to those lines… for some reason, as soon as I felt that I had a grip and had gone through this process of understanding my identity, it became unimportant for me.”
Adams forges his investigation through textiles—materials with rich cultural histories, especially in Islam, that he sees as resonant with the strong matriarchal influence of his childhood. His works dwell on the relationship between gender and craft, the role of the prayer rug, and the issue of veiling identities, highlighting the numerous histories and ideologies embedded in each piece of fabric.