Please Remember
IGSHAAN ADAMS
August 29 – November 1, 2015

A Tale of A Tub is proud to announce its first residency with South African artist Igshaan Adams, resulting in the exhibition Please Remember, which opens on Saturday, August 29th. Please Remember is a multi-disciplinary exhibition with existing and newly commissioned works, including a performance by Adams and his father.

CLEANSING AND PURIFICATION
In Please Remember, Adams explores the notion of cleansing within Islamic culture. He is interested in how this idea is related to site, environment, and the body as a site of renewal. Please Remember takes its title from a performance in which the artist undergoes the ritualistic washing normally conducted on a person who has passed. During the opening on August 29th the artist’s father will conduct this ritual by washing his son’s body and covering him in white linen. This is one of the works in which Adams investigates the multitude of interpretations regarding the ritual of cleansing within a religious as well as non-religious context. In his practice, Adams uses the material and iconographies of Islamic tradition and Coloured culture particularly from South Africa to develop a more equivocal, phenomenological approach towards issues concerning race, sexuality, and religion. His interests translate into performances as well as sculptures and handwoven, colourful tapestries.

INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Leading up to the exhibition, Adams will be spending two weeks in Spangen as the first participant in A Tale of a Tub’s International Residency Program. Adams explores the neighbourhood—known for its demographic diversity and its dynamic history of urban renewal and regeneration since the 1970s. During his residency, Adams works in the confines of the historic bathhouse of the Justus van Effen complex to investigate the notion of cleanliness, cleansing rituals, purification, renewal and reconfiguration on a micro- and macro-level. Relating to the history of the building as the former community bathhouse, he considers the daily ritual of washing in its many forms as a kind of baptism; an act that aims to rid of impurities, rejuvenate, prepare one for daily life and for some, offer a veil of protection against the ‘unknown’.