The Barbican Centre in London has been transformed from a grey and angular building to a sea of pink, with the frontage of the building clad in cloth that billows in the wind. The installation, called Purple Hibiscus, is the work of visual artist Ibrahim Mahama, who was inspired to use colourful cloth as a contrast to the grey concrete and weather. Over three months, a team of 1,000 people hand-stitched 2,000 square metres of striped cotton, before decorating it with 130 traditional smocks known as batakari. The work is a nod to London’s famous rag trade, as well as Ghana’s history of textiles.
Mahama’s other large-scale public art installations also reference the power of collective labour and the memories that textiles contain. Jute sacks, used to transport cocoa, rice and charcoal, were draped over the National Theatre in Accra, and his latest project at the Barbican showcases batakari – a type of tunic made from hand-woven strips of cotton that are sewn together to create a distinctive striped pattern. The tunics originated in northern Ghana but are now worn throughout the country and beyond by both men and women.
Many of the batakari contained within Purple Hibiscus are decades old and bear yellowish stains of sweat and urine. Some families would not hand over their batakari until they had urinated on them, as they believe that the family’s past, present and future is contained within the garment. Mahama finds the decay of textiles “interesting aesthetically”, believing that when something is at the “point of its life”, it is “beginning to live more”.
As an artist, he values the process and experience of creating art as much as the final product. Purple Hibiscus was crafted in Tamale’s sports stadium, where the team of 1,000 makers worked for three months. Mahama sees the creation of a relationship between the Barbican Centre’s post-World War Two brutalist architecture and the traditional batakari as beautiful, given the historical and cultural contexts of the two forms of labour
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More