The Saatchi Assortment—amassed by the headline-hitting UK collector Charles Saatchi—has consigned a large-scale set up by the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama to Bonhams public sale home in London. The piece Untitled (2013), consisting of 11 draped coal sacks made out of jute fibre, has an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000.
The work, which is at the moment displayed on Charles Saatchi’s web site, might be supplied within the Trendy and up to date artwork sale (16 October). It was first proven within the exhibition Pangaea: New Artwork from Africa to Latin America on the Saatchi Gallery in King’s Street, London, and is on show at Bonhams, New Bond Avenue, till 29 August.
Helene Love-Allotey, head of Bonhams’ Trendy and up to date African Artwork Division, says in an announcement: “It’s a piece that heralds Ibrahim Mahama’s early deep curiosity in how textiles have been recycled and repurposed and what may be drawn from the historical past of the threads and the recollections embedded in them.” Final October, Mahama’s work AJ-10100 (2013-14), a single coal sack piece, fetched £17,920 (with charges) at Bonhams.
Who’s Ibrahim Mahama?
Earlier this yr Mahama unveiled the work Purple Hibiscus on the Barbican Centre in London, which coated the waterfront façade of the brutalist construction
Ibrahim Mahama together with his work, Untitled (2013) at Bonhams, New Bond Avenue, London. Courtesy of Bonhams
Mahama is thought for his large tapestries of sewn-together jute sacks that he drapes over whole buildings. These have included theatres, luxurious residences and social housing initiatives in his native Ghana, in addition to two exterior partitions of the Arsenale on the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, and Kassel’s historic Torwache (guard buildings) for Documenta 14 in 2017.
The jute sacks he makes use of are made in Asia and imported to Ghana to move cocoa beans and rice to Europe, America and elsewhere. They’re then usually reused many occasions to hold feed, coal and charcoal across the nation for home consumption, earlier than being lastly repurposed by Mahama on the finish of their working life, illustrating the complicated commerce networks of the worldwide economic system and post-independence Ghana.
Earlier this yr Mahama unveiled the work Purple Hibiscus on the Barbican Centre in London. The piece, made of two,000 sq. metres of woven material, coated the waterfront façade of the brutalist construction, making a vivid distinction in opposition to the gray constructing and sky.
Has the Saatchi assortment bought different works?
Different current public sale gross sales from the Saatchi assortment embrace Stella Vine’s portray Hello Paul Can You Come Over? (2003) which fetched £11,700 (with charges; estimate £600-£900) final September at Roseberys public sale home in West Norwood, London. Saatchi didn’t reply to a request for remark in regards to the gross sales.
The Saatchi Gallery in King’s Street, which opened in 2008, hosts an eclectic mixture of exhibits together with the present exhibition Homelessness: Reframed (till 20 September), which incorporates works by artists comparable to Marc Quinn and Tiffany Barham. Early exhibitions on the house included works primarily drawn from Saatchi’s assortment comparable to The Revolution Continues: New Artwork from China (2008).
