Encountering Igshaan Adams at the Guggenheim Bilbao

One of the most unexpected highlights of my recent visit to the Guggenheim Bilbao was discovering the monumental tapestry installations of South African artist Igshaan Adams.

As a tapestry weaver myself, it's always exciting to encounter contemporary textile work on such an ambitious scale. Walking into the gallery and finding myself surrounded by enormous suspended tapestries was both surprising and captivating. Rather than simply hanging on the walls, many of the works occupy the gallery itself, inviting visitors to walk around them and experience both sides of the weave. Smaller wire-based textile pieces are suspended overhead, transforming the exhibition into an immersive environment where tapestry becomes sculpture as much as surface.

Adams's practice intertwines the personal and the political through material, gesture and collaboration. Working with everyday materials - including beads, shells, rope, copper wire, glass, stone, plastic and found objects - he creates richly textured woven and sculptural works that explore themes of race, religion, sexuality, memory and belonging. Although the concepts originate with Adams, the large-scale tapestries are woven and embroidered in collaboration with members of his studio team and the wider community in Cape Town, adding another layer of meaning through collective making.

For this body of work, Adams extended his exploration of mapping and trace-making through movement. Working alongside dancers from the Garage Dance Ensemble in O'okiep, in South Africa's Northern Cape, he developed a process in which performers moved across canvases laid over painted linoleum, creating what he describes as "dance prints". Layer by layer, these impressions record shared gestures, encounters and memories, suggesting that experiences and emotions accumulate over time rather than simply disappearing.

The craftsmanship throughout the exhibition is extraordinary. Up close, the intricate combinations of woven fibres, embroidery, beads and found materials reveal remarkable technical skill and invite prolonged looking. Every surface offers something new to discover, rewarding patience and close observation.

Personally, however, I found myself wanting a little more from the compositions themselves. Not in terms of concept - the ideas behind the work are thoughtful and compelling - but within the visual structure of the tapestries. While the richness of the materials is fascinating at close range, from a distance I felt there was something missing that would immediately draw my eye into the work. I found myself searching for a stronger visual anchor or greater sense of movement that would first captivate from across the gallery before revealing the intricate details on closer inspection.

Of course, this is entirely a personal response. One of the joys of visiting exhibitions is recognising that we all bring different experiences and expectations to the work we encounter. What resonates deeply with one viewer may leave another asking different questions, and that dialogue is part of what makes contemporary art so engaging.

As someone whose own practice explores tapestry as a process of translation, I found Adams's exhibition particularly thought-provoking. Although we approach the medium in very different ways, his ability to translate movement, memory and identity into woven form reminded me that tapestry continues to evolve far beyond its traditional boundaries. I left the Guggenheim reflecting not only on what can be woven, but on what weaving itself can communicate.