By Biennale of Sydney
22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN
Ibrahim Mahama, 'A Grain of Wheat' | 22nd Biennale of Sydney | NIRIN (2020)Biennale of Sydney
A Grain of Wheat Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
About the artist
Ibrahim Mahama
Born 1987 in Tamale, Ghana
Lives and works in Tamale, Accra and Kumasi, Ghana
A Grain of Wheat Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
A Grain of Wheat
Ibrahim Mahama’s installation A Grain of Wheat assembles upright medical stretchers, many dating from World War II, collected from a site near to a refugee camp in Athens.
Found elements like maps collected from Ghana are collaged within the canvas of the stretchers referencing intersecting histories of human mobility, labour and suffering.
A Grain of Wheat Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
Aromatic smoked fish papers sourced from West African smokehouses conjure visceral reactions.
Materials carry the residues of past actions, holding and bearing the physical markers, smells and traces of the interconnected networks and industries they previously moved through, and the human lives touched and affected.
A Grain of Wheat Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
The work forms a kind of sensory archive of life, labour, and loss.
"We are living in difficult times. We should allow the ghosts from history to speak to us in ways which can allow for new beginnings."
- Ibrahim Mahama
Tap to explore
Navigate through the installation at Artspace and explore more of Mahama's work in No Friend but the Mountains 2012-20.
A Grain of Wheat, 2015-18
mixed media
Presented at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron, and Anonymous, and assistance from White Cube
Courtesy the artist and White Cube, London / Hong Kong
