The Kings Cloth

The King Cloth is a large wall-mounted glass installation that reads like a ceremonial textile translated into a luminous, architectural surface. Composed of multiple fused and slumped glass panels arranged in a grid, the work evokes the structure and visual rhythm of kente cloth, a fabric historically associated with Akan royalty, authority, and social status.

The background is animated by repeating geometric patterns in yellow, green, black, and red, creating a woven visual field that recalls hand-loomed cloth. Across this patterned ground, smaller inset panels carry symbolic motifs rendered in contrasting tones—earthy browns, deep blacks, soft whites, and cool greens. These motifs reference Akan iconography and Adinkra-like symbols, each suggesting values such as leadership, spirituality, protection, unity, and continuity.

Subtle undulations along the edges of the glass break the rigidity of the grid, allowing the surface to ripple like fabric while asserting the material’s fragility and permanence. Light penetrates and reflects through the layers, activating colour, depth, and shadow, and reinforcing the dialogue between transparency and opacity.

Through **The King Cloth**, glass becomes a carrier of cultural memory. The work reimagines royal cloth not as something worn, but as something displayed, preserved, and contemplated—transforming tradition into a contemporary visual language that speaks about power, heritage, and the endurance of African identity within a modern material practice.