Some reviews write themselves. There is something instinctively pleasurable about letting the eyes and senses wander over the braided contours of Ifeoma U Anyaeji’s new selection of friezes and sculptures at Tramway. And, while the concepts underpinning the show are clear for anyone looking, and highly topical (from the plastic-waste apocalypse to gender norms in national tradition), there’s no need to hold them clearly in focus to savour this exhibition.

^{Etiti Etiti/Picture: Ifeoma U Anyaeji}

Born in Benin City, Nigeria, Anyaeji uses African hair-threading techniques (‘Ikpa Owu’ in Igbo language) to transform non-biodegradable plastic waste into textiles, a practice she calls plasto-art. Spirals, loops and tendrils of densely threaded plastic bags encircle crushed drinks cans, bottles, found fabrics and long wooden needles. There are links here with the modernist, off-grid textile practices of artists such as Sheila Hicks and Magdalena Abakanowicz and the bottle-top installations of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. But Anyaeji is also drawing connections to a specific, feminised tradition of hair braiding which is becoming increasingly obsolete, reinventing that heritage while undertaking symbolic gestures of waste transformation.

^{Uma Ada/Picture: Ifeoma U Anyaeji}

In keeping with the theme of regional and national traditions, the artist also explores forms and influences from Nigerian and Igbo culture. A new commission for Tramway, Ijem Nke Mmanwu M (The Journey Of My Masquerade) references the Nigerian Igbo Masquerade (‘Mmanwu’). This rite, performed by men, involves donning elaborate costumes that often dwarf the body in swathes of cloth, metal, beads, leather, bones and more. Anyaeji’s Mmanwu costume consists of a more-than-lifesized cylinder of brightly patterned fabric with a plume of plastic-draped spikes. A pair of legs is visible through an opening in the front. The construction plays with gender norms by using braiding techniques in a traditionally masculine format while also creating the uncanny sense that a hidden, semi-human presence might be there with you in the room.

Ijem Nke Mmanwu M will be on display at Tramway, Glasgow, until Sunday 4 June.