.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Descriptif du lot
The certainty of being a rose (ii) (2026) has been generously donated by Igshaan Adams to benefit Artists for Climate Action. This collaborative fundraising initiative has been created by world-leading climate charities Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) and ClientEarth, who have joined forces to build the most impactful philanthropic platform at the intersection of art and culture. It aims to transform art-world influence into real-world climate action, underscoring its ongoing commitment to reducing its carbon footprint across logistics, travel, energy use, waste management, packing materials and supplier engagement.
Through artworks generously donated by artists and their galleries, the Artists for Climate Action initiative raises vital funds to address the climate crisis at two interconnected scales: supporting GCC’s work to accelerate environmental action and systemic change across the visual arts, while powering ClientEarth’s strategic legal action to hold governments and major corporations accountable and protect people, nature and the climate. By bringing together artists, galleries and collectors, Artists for Climate Action harnesses the cultural and economic influence of the art world as a force for positive environmental change. A further work by Patricia Leite is offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale.
A dazzling apparition composed of rope, twine, beads, glass and fabric, The certainty of being a rose (ii) is an exquisite rendition of one of Adams’ central subjects. Based on photographs and sketches of roses that the artist cultivates on his balcony in Cape Town, it belongs to a small suite of works depicting the same flower from three different angles: another is held in the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Currently the subject of a major exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Adams uses complex sculptural and textile media to explore themes of selfhood and materiality. In the present work, he confronts the beauty and fragility of the natural world. The rose, for him, embodies a kind of unattainable perfection that he believes should be preserved and protected at all costs. Here, it becomes a vision of hope, granted new life as art.
Adams has risen to critical acclaim over the past decade, notably participating in the 2022 Venice Biennale and the 2023 Bienal de São Paulo. The following year he mounted a major exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield, followed by a solo presentations at ARoS, Aarhus, the Hill Art Foundation, New York and Mudam Luxembourg. Born in Bonteheuwel, a suburb of Cape Town, he grew up in a world where the complexities of individual identity were subsumed by the apartheid regime. Encompassing tapestries, floor and wall-based installation and immersive sculpture, his works seek to capture the impressions that humans leave upon themselves and their environment. In the lively, communal environment of his studio, months of intricate weaving and embroidery take place, infusing raw materials with traces of lived experience.
As a child, Adams was inspired by nature: from his grandparents’ home in rural Namaqualand, to the beaches and mountains around Cape Town. One of his first jobs as an adult was as a gardener. It was his encounters with Sufi mysticism, however, that prompted his particular fascination with the rose. One of his lecturers, who had converted to Islam, introduced him to her spiritual teacher Ma Rukea, who led a Sufi community on the Cape Flats. Adams spent four years as her tenant, and absorbed her teachings. For her, he explains, the rose was a powerful symbol, its thorns representing pain but also protection. The petals, moreover, evoke the veils that, in Sufi teaching, separate us from enlightenment. As the petals drop, she explained, we move one step closer to true reality. Its physical beauty is a foil for the revelations that lurk within. This sense of slowly uncovering oneself, and moving towards a position of clarity, forms the basis of Adams’ art. ‘Artists are uniquely positioned to help us see clearer,’ he asserts. ‘… And I think our relationship to nature is maybe one of those things.’
Through artworks generously donated by artists and their galleries, the Artists for Climate Action initiative raises vital funds to address the climate crisis at two interconnected scales: supporting GCC’s work to accelerate environmental action and systemic change across the visual arts, while powering ClientEarth’s strategic legal action to hold governments and major corporations accountable and protect people, nature and the climate. By bringing together artists, galleries and collectors, Artists for Climate Action harnesses the cultural and economic influence of the art world as a force for positive environmental change. A further work by Patricia Leite is offered in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale.
A dazzling apparition composed of rope, twine, beads, glass and fabric, The certainty of being a rose (ii) is an exquisite rendition of one of Adams’ central subjects. Based on photographs and sketches of roses that the artist cultivates on his balcony in Cape Town, it belongs to a small suite of works depicting the same flower from three different angles: another is held in the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Currently the subject of a major exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Adams uses complex sculptural and textile media to explore themes of selfhood and materiality. In the present work, he confronts the beauty and fragility of the natural world. The rose, for him, embodies a kind of unattainable perfection that he believes should be preserved and protected at all costs. Here, it becomes a vision of hope, granted new life as art.
Adams has risen to critical acclaim over the past decade, notably participating in the 2022 Venice Biennale and the 2023 Bienal de São Paulo. The following year he mounted a major exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield, followed by a solo presentations at ARoS, Aarhus, the Hill Art Foundation, New York and Mudam Luxembourg. Born in Bonteheuwel, a suburb of Cape Town, he grew up in a world where the complexities of individual identity were subsumed by the apartheid regime. Encompassing tapestries, floor and wall-based installation and immersive sculpture, his works seek to capture the impressions that humans leave upon themselves and their environment. In the lively, communal environment of his studio, months of intricate weaving and embroidery take place, infusing raw materials with traces of lived experience.
As a child, Adams was inspired by nature: from his grandparents’ home in rural Namaqualand, to the beaches and mountains around Cape Town. One of his first jobs as an adult was as a gardener. It was his encounters with Sufi mysticism, however, that prompted his particular fascination with the rose. One of his lecturers, who had converted to Islam, introduced him to her spiritual teacher Ma Rukea, who led a Sufi community on the Cape Flats. Adams spent four years as her tenant, and absorbed her teachings. For her, he explains, the rose was a powerful symbol, its thorns representing pain but also protection. The petals, moreover, evoke the veils that, in Sufi teaching, separate us from enlightenment. As the petals drop, she explained, we move one step closer to true reality. Its physical beauty is a foil for the revelations that lurk within. This sense of slowly uncovering oneself, and moving towards a position of clarity, forms the basis of Adams’ art. ‘Artists are uniquely positioned to help us see clearer,’ he asserts. ‘… And I think our relationship to nature is maybe one of those things.’