The Saatchi Collection—amassed by the headline-hitting UK collector Charles Saatchi—has consigned a large-scale installation by the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama to Bonhams auction house in London. The piece Untitled (2013), consisting of 11 draped coal sacks made from jute fibre, has an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000.
The work, which is currently displayed on Charles Saatchi’s website, will be offered in the Modern and contemporary art sale (16 October). It was first shown in the exhibition Pangaea: New Art from Africa to Latin America at the Saatchi Gallery in King’s Road, London, and is on display at Bonhams, New Bond Street, until 29 August.
Helene Love-Allotey, head of Bonhams’ Modern and contemporary African Art Department, says in a statement: “It’s a work that heralds Ibrahim Mahama’s early deep interest in how textiles have been recycled and repurposed and what can be drawn from the history of the threads and the memories embedded in them.” Last October, Mahama’s work AJ-10100 (2013-14), a single coal sack piece, fetched £17,920 (with fees) at Bonhams.
Who is Ibrahim Mahama?
Earlier this year Mahama unveiled the work Purple Hibiscus at the Barbican Centre in London, which covered the waterfront façade of the brutalist structure
Ibrahim Mahama with his work, Untitled (2013) at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London. Courtesy of Bonhams
Mahama is known for his massive tapestries of sewn-together jute sacks that he drapes over entire buildings. These have included theatres, luxury apartments and social housing projects in his native Ghana, as well as two external walls of the Arsenale at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, and Kassel’s historic Torwache (guard buildings) for Documenta 14 in 2017.
The jute sacks he uses are made in Asia and imported to Ghana to transport cocoa beans and rice to Europe, America and elsewhere. They are then often reused many times to carry feed, coal and charcoal around the country for domestic consumption, before being finally repurposed by Mahama at the end of their working life, illustrating the complex trade networks of the global economy and post-independence Ghana.
Earlier this year Mahama unveiled the work Purple Hibiscus at the Barbican Centre in London. The piece, made of 2,000 square metres of woven cloth, covered the waterfront façade of the brutalist structure, creating a vivid contrast against the grey building and sky.
Has the Saatchi collection sold other works?
Other recent auction sales from the Saatchi collection include Stella Vine’s painting Hi Paul Can You Come Over? (2003) which fetched £11,700 (with fees; estimate £600-£900) last September at Roseberys auction house in West Norwood, London. Saatchi did not respond to a request for comment about the sales.
The Saatchi Gallery in King’s Road, which opened in 2008, hosts an eclectic mix of shows including the current exhibition Homelessness: Reframed (until 20 September), which includes works by artists such as Marc Quinn and Tiffany Barham. Early exhibitions at the space included works primarily drawn from Saatchi’s collection such as The Revolution Continues: New Art from China (2008).