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Ibrahim Mahama. Purple Hibiscus, Barbican Fassade, Lakeside Terrace, 2024
Exhibition
Ibrahim Mahama. Purple Hibiscus
10 Apr 2024 – 18 Aug 2024
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 19:00
- Monday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Tuesday
- 11:00 – 19:00
Free admission
Address
- Silk Street
- London
- EC2Y 8DS
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Moorgate / Barbican
A new artwork by Ibrahim Mahama transforms our Lakeside Terrace, enveloping the building’s iconic concrete walls with approximately 2000 square metres of bespoke woven cloth.
About
Purple Hibiscus has been created in collaboration with hundreds of craftspeople from Tamale in Ghana where the colossal panels of pink and purple fabric have been woven and sewn by hand, to be fitted to the brutalist planes of our building.
100 ‘batakaris’ – robes worn by Ghanaian kings – are embroidered onto the artwork. Often saved by families over generations, these precious textiles carry the imprints of the figures they once clothed, signifying the continued relevance of intergenerational knowledge. Ibrahim Mahama holds a deep interest in the life cycles of textiles and what can be learnt from the historical memories embedded within them.
Purple Hibiscus is part of Unravel: The Power & Politics of Textiles in Art.
