It is a vast landscape of cultures, materials, forms, knowledge and ways of making each shaped differently by land, history and community.
For Akire, the outline of the African continent is a recognition of where our work begins and the wider world from which we continue to observe, learn and create.
From Kenya, where our pieces are made, our gaze extends across the continent: to its natural forms and raw materials; to objects made for everyday life; to the differences in craft, colour and cultural expression encountered from one place to another.
Rendered in beadwork, the African continent becomes our way of holding these many references within a single form.
Each interpretation may differ in colour and composition, because the continent it represents is not singular in expression.
The hand gives every piece its own character.
For those who live here, it can hold a sense of belonging.
For those who have travelled through Kenya or elsewhere across Africa, it can become something more personal, a memory of a place, an encounter, a journey worth carrying forward.
Not simply something brought home from Africa.
A piece through which a story of Africa continues to travel.
THE AFRICAN CONTINENT STUDIES
Beaded forms inspired by transformation, resilience and renewal.
