Casey Kaplan
IGSHAAN ADAMS
“GETUIE”
SCAD Museum of Art
Pamela Elaine Poetter Gallery Savannah, GA
February 4 – August 2, 2020
Working in performance, weaving, sculpture, and installation, South African artist Igshaan Adams explores materiality, phenomenology, and identity. In his first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., Adams lines the walls and floors of the expansive Pamela Elaine Poetter Gallery with used linoleum flooring extracted from working-class homes across Cape Town, South Africa. Within the interior of the installation lies an amalgamation of works created from large-scale sculptural weavings as well as heavily embellished two-dimensional wall hangings that map the linoleum flooring’s patterns and the pathways caused by years of foot traffic in its original setting.
The title of the show is in Afrikaans, Adams’ mother tongue, and directly translates as “witness.” It alludes to the way in which the flooring is testament to the lives that left their marks and traces, as well as the vernacular meaning of swearing oath to the character of someone in your inner circle. “Getuie” is an evocative, immersive environment that speaks to Adams’ ongoing exploration of the domestic environment as a contested site where issues of race, religion, class, and sexuality intersect in both comforting and unsettling ways.
“Getuie” is organized by guest curator Storm Janse van Rensburg.