Adams’ Khamsa unfolds as a series of square tapestries structured by precise grids of straight lines and right angles, within which five smaller squares punctuate each composition. The title, derived from the Arabic word for “five”, alludes not only to formal repetition but to the artist’s upbringing as Muslim, referencing the five pillars of Islam and five daily prayers that shape devotional life. Throughout the series, geometry becomes a vessel for memory and discipline, echoing the rhythms through which faith is practiced and internalised.

Within Adams’s broader practice which frequently draws on the textures of his upbringing in a religiously complex, post-apartheid South Africa, Khamsa marks a meeting point between inherited belief systems and Adams’s own modes of expression. His longstanding engagement with the form of the prayer mat – reimagined through weaving, beading, and layered materiality – reflects an ongoing negotiation between prescribed faith and lived experience. In this way, the Khamsa works do not only reference prayer but reconstitute it in a tactile form of abstraction that offers a nuanced meditation on discipline, belonging, and the quiet persistence of faith within Adams’ own life and practice.