Ibrahim Mahama (*1987 Ghana)
Untitled (2018) belongs to an early phase of Ibrahim Mahama’s practice, when the artist began collecting and working with two key materials: jute sacks and traditional handwoven smocks. Mahama was initially drawn to jute sacks for their subtle materiality and the printed text they carry —marks of global trade routes, laboursystems, and the countless hands that handled them. These bags, which once held cocoa or other goods, often bear traces that evoke the human body, both metaphorically and through the wear accumulated over time.
Smocks, on the other hand, introduce a more intimate register. Worn directly on the body, they absorb sweat, dirt, and other bodily traces. As they age, they are repeatedly repaired, accumulating stitches that resemble
scars or wounds—transformations that make each garment feel like an extension of the person who wore it. Historically, smocks are passed down through generations, carrying personal and ancestral histories
embedded in their fibbers.
When Mahama first began sourcing these materials, access to them was not straightforward. Acquiring jute sacks involved a process of exchange: purchasing new bags for market women and receiving their old, worn
ones in return. Collecting smocks required navigating even more complex cultural meanings. Because these garments are believed to hold personal or spiritual energy, many owners felt they needed to “break” that connection before giving them away. Some would intentionally stain the fabric—using substances such as urine—in order to sever the intimate or spiritual bond they felt the cloth contained.
For the artist, these gestures only further underscore the deep relationship between the material and the human body. The smocks’ irregular stitching and patched surfaces create a texture reminiscent of skin, a quality heactivates in his compositions. In Untitled, Mahama arranges the smocks carefully so that their woven surfaces interact with, rather than obscure, the printed text on the jute sacks. The work emerges from this interplay: the meeting of text and texture, of global circulation and personal histories, of labour, memory, and the body.
