Text by Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Ibrahim Mahama and Robin Riskin
Edited by Honey Luard
Designed by Jonathan Hares
231 x 167 mm, softback
64 pages, 32 colour and 2 black and white illustrations
ISBN 978-1-910844-18-2
Published by White Cube, 2017

Ibrahim Mahama is one of the most prominent artists to emerge from Ghana in recent years, known for his large-scale installations incorporating jute sacks previously used to transport cocoa beans and charcoal, which are stitched together and draped over architectural structures.

Published to accompany ‘Fragments’, Mahama’s first UK exhibition, this book is an invaluable introduction to his practice in general, including not only images of the works on show but also archival images of past projects and resource material.

In the works exhibited in Mahama’s 2017 Inside the White Cube exhibition, the artist explores time and transference, privation and potential, as embodied through objects, materials and the traces left in their wake. The artists created a monumental sculpture in the north gallery of the building, made from wooden shoe-boxes as well as an installation of jute sack wall works and the film Exchange Exchanger. As he explains, ‘the hope is that their residues – stained, broken and abandoned, but bearing light – might lead us into new possibilities and spaces beyond.’ This impetus characterises all of Mahama’s works.

‘Inside the White Cube’ is a series of exhibitions showcasing work by non-represented artists at the forefront of global developments in contemporary art, who have not previously exhibited with the gallery. Accompanying a number of the exhibitions are modest softback volumes that serve as an introduction to the artists’ practices.

Bernard Akoi-Jackson is a multi-disciplinary Ghanaian artist and writer who received an MFA from the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. His work has been exhibited locally and internationally. In 2016 he was head curator of the exhibition ’Cornfields in Accra’ at blaxTARLINES KUMASI. Robin Riskin is an independent curator who divides her time between Kumasi and New York. She received an MFA in curating from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, and regularly collaborates with the project space blaxTARLINES KUMASI.