A LOOK INSIDE: ‘Speaking in tongues’

This painting serves as a mirror, a symbol that both sees and reflects. It invites a deeply personal interaction, one that asks you to consider not only how the world impacts you but how you, in turn, respond. It brings to light what must be seen, what must be felt, and what must be acknowledged. It asks for an internal reckoning, a witness to yourself, for yourself. In her gaze, there is a silent understanding. She sees you. She witnesses you, even in moments when it feels as though no one else does.  

The medium itself deep connotations. Burnt wood, a living organism transformed through fire, its natural state irreversibly altered. It bears the mark of this process, a scar etched into its surface, a memory of what it has endured. The charred wood speaks of history: moments of destruction, survival, and transformation. Left whole, it carries its scars as evidence of its journey, an unspoken testimony to its resilience.  

The mask at the heart of the piece draws from the cultural depths of East African ritualistic ceremonies. It embodies the spiritual weight of these traditions, where ancestors are invoked to guide and bless during rites of passage to adulthood. The mask is a vessel of connection, a bridge between past and present, between the physical and the metaphysical. It carries the echoes of a culture rooted in reverence, community, and transformation.  

Yet, the painting speaks not just to tradition but to displacement. It plays with the fragmented narratives of new world diasporas—those who have been displaced, replaced, or misplaced. It questions what remains when strong cultural embodiments are fractured or distant. What links persist beyond the physical? How do memory, ritual, and identity evolve when the connection to ancestral roots is strained or severed?  

In this interplay of fire, culture, and self, the painting becomes a meditation on identity, loss, and transformation. It holds the tension between the permanence of scars and the resilience of the spirit, between cultural fragmentation and the longing for connection. It asks you to not only look but to feel. To witness what lies within and what lies beyond.