Ibrahim Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation and economic exchange. Often made in collaboration, his large- scale installations employ materials gathered from urban environments such as remnants of wood and textiles or jute sacks, which are sewn together and draped over architectural structures.

Ibrahim’s interest in material, process and audience has led him to focus on jute sacks
in particular since they are synonymous with the trade markets of Ghana. Fabricated in Southeast Asia, the sacks are imported by the Ghana Cocoa Boards to transport cocoa beans but end up as multi-functional objects, used for both the transportation of food and commodities and for many daily chores around the home.

His work has appeared in international exhibitions including Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017), The Gown Must Go To Town, Accra, ‘All the World’s Futures’, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015); ‘Artist’s Rooms’, K21, Dusseldorf (2015); ‘Material Effects’, The Broad Art Museum, Michigan (2015); ‘An Age of Our Own Making’, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Holbæk city (2016); and ‘Fracture’, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel (2016) and Orderly Disorderly, Accra.