Ibrahim Mahama (Ghanaian, born 1987) Kawokudi installation, 2013 dimensions variable. image 1

Ibrahim Mahama (Ghanaian, born 1987) Kawokudi installation, 2013 dimensions variable. image 2

Lot 14^TP

Ibrahim Mahama
(Ghanaian, born 1987)
Kawokudi installation, 2013 dimensions variable.

Amended

Modern & Contemporary African Art

9 March 2022, 16:00 GMT

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £22,750 inc. premium

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Ibrahim Mahama (Ghanaian, born 1987)

Kawokudi installation, 2013
jute sacks with wax print panels
dimensions variable.

Footnotes

Please note the following amendment to the provenance of the work:
Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, Accra;
Saatchi Collection, London.
Provenance
Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, Accra;
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2013.

Exhibited
Accra, Ghana, Kawokudi, Coal Sack Installation, 2013
London, Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea: New Art From Africa and Latin America, 2 April – 2 November 2014
London, Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea II: New Art From Africa and Latin America, 11 March 2015 – 17 September 2015.

Literature
Pangaea: New Art From Africa and Latin America, exh. cat., Saatchi Gallery, London, 2014, p. 89 (illustrated).

Born in 1987 in Tamale, Ghanian artist Ibrahim Mahama transforms found materials into structural forms that explore themes of global consumerism, migration, and economic exchange. The present installation is representative of the sustained employment of jute sacks within his practice. Made in Southeast Asia, the sacks are imported by the Ghana Cocoa Boards to package cocoa beans for export. The used sacks are repurposed to carry animal feed, coal, and charcoal around the country for domestic consumption. Mahama consequently employs the jute sacks as material metaphors for the global circulation of commodities that pass through Ghana and its associated socio-economic inequities.

The reuse and transformation of the raw materials employed in the present installation embodies the artist's political message: 'I have a vision of art that can affect change rather than being about producing beautiful commodities for sale on the market'. The artist's conviction in the political nature of his practice has prompted him to open three educational art institutions in northern Ghana, the most recent of which – a renovated silo in Tamale – informed his solo exhibition Lazarus, staged at White Cube, Bermondsey in 2021.

Mahama's vast sack forms have been installed over a variety of buildings in his native Ghana including theatres, luxury apartments, and social housing projects. They have also been the centrepiece of the artist's participation in the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2015 and Documenta 14 in 2017. The present work has previously been exhibited in Accra in 2013 and at the Saatchi Gallery in London in both 2014 and 2015.

Saleroom notices

Please note the following amendment to the provenance of the work: Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, Accra; Saatchi Collection, London.

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