The ocean has long been a symbol of separation and connection. For Africans on the continent and in the diaspora, its waves carry complex histories—of displacement, longing, resilience, and reunion. This exhibition seeks to explore the duality of the ocean as both a barrier and a bridge in the context of the artists personal experience growing up in Kenya and living in the US and Germany over the last decade.

In my first week in the US, I met Imani. Imani is the Swahili word for "faith." Delighted at hearing a familiar name in this foreign land, I struck up a conversation with Imani, who I thought was Kenyan at the time. Upon investigating where she was from, Imani said she was from "Philly" and was not familiar with her African heritage. Looking at this encounter, I do not think it is a coincidence that I met an Imani in my first week of being in the US. Rather, I see this as a divine intervention from the ancestors who came before us. Imani made me feel at home in a land that felt so foreign, and I, in turn, sparked her curiosity about her roots. That exchange, small as it was, felt like a bridge—a thread connecting our shared history and identity. Many such exchanges later, I am convinced that my work exists to bridge these gaps between the continent and the diaspora.

Tides That Bind invites visitors to reflect on questions of home, ancestors, and the unseen forces that tether us to one another across continents and time. How do we define home when it stretches beyond borders? How do we honor the ancestors who endured and persevered? And how do we embrace the invisible threads that weave us into a shared story of survival and belonging? This exhibition is a conversation—a call to explore the ways in which we, as Africans and diasporic Africans, remain connected despite the vastness of the seas that separate us.

​​

​

exhibition text by Ian Wainaina

​

​