WATER WOMAN, HEADS IN A BASKET, NYOKA, MUSA

The four dark-patinated bronzes suggest evolving, fluid identities. Informed by African traditions, they evoke water spirits, ancestral beings, and regenerative forces. Nyoka, Swahili for “snake,” rests in a coiled posture, its size unreadable, paused in a state between shedding and renewal. Water Woman, a Black mermaid, channels the Nguva and Mami Wata figures of coastal Africa, presences of power, fluidity, and transformation.

Musa and Heads in a Basket return to the motif of the basket, this time rendered in heavy bronze, filled with water. The fetal figure in Musa, named for Moses in Arabic and Swahili, suggests birth and embodies a suspended condition, neither alive nor inert. In Heads in a Basket, bronze heads improbably float, contradicting their material weight and challenging our expectation. Together, the sculptures explore contradictions: softness in metal, stillness in motion, and myth within matter. In the garden’s cyclical rhythm, they do not stand as monuments but as presences in flux, inhabiting a space where history breathes and forms remain open.

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