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Walking past the brutalist Barbican Centre over the next few months, you may notice something slightly different about it.
What could it be, you will wonder. Maybe the sunlight is catching it in a slightly different way? Perhaps they've added an extra couple of benches to the Lakeside Terrace? And then it will click: the building has been shrouded in 2,000 square metres of bright pink/purple woven cloth. Ah yes, that'll be it.
The almighty pullover is not some tardy stunt for the Barbie movie, though. Called 'Purple Hibiscus', the installation is the work of Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, who has collaborated with hundreds of craftspeople from Tamale in Ghana, to put together this head-turning artwork. Such was the size of these fabric panels, sports stadiums were commandeered as makeshift factories. It is, perhaps, the largest bespoke piece of clothing ever constructed.
Sewn onto the huge fabric panels are 130 'batakaris' — robes worn by Northern Ghanaian royals and ordinary people. "These precious textiles", says the Barbican, "often saved by families over generations, tucked away in wardrobes or stored below beds, carry the imprints of the lives, lineage and power of the figures they once clothed."
What does it all mean? A whole raft of ideas, we are told. The vibrant hues, says the artist, are an "expression of allyship with marginalised communities". The batakaris are "testaments to the endurance of traditional belief systems, and the continued relevance of intergenerational knowledge". There is even a nod to the Barbican's previous life as the centre of London's rag trade.
"Viewed together", says the Barbican, "the hand stitched panels of Purple Hibiscus and the hand pitted concrete of the Barbican's rough concrete façade offer an expanded reflection on the relationship between the handcrafted and the monumental." Whatever you personally derive from Purple Hibiscus, if you go and see it before August, there's a 100% chance you'll end up taking a photo of it — one of the surest signs of a successful artwork in 2024.
Ibrahim Mahama: Purple Hibiscus, Barbican Lakeside Terrace, until 18 August 2024, free
