WHEN THE WIND BLOWS: A SOLO EXHIBITION BY WILLY KAREKEZI

Time, like the wind, is an unseen yet profoundly transformative force, shaping landscapes, identities, and experiences long after its passage. The artworks in When the Wind Blows explore these subtle yet lasting imprints on our lives, delving into the interplay between fragility and resilience, ephemerality and permanence, and the personal and the collective.

This exhibition presents a collection of works crafted in diverse mediums, including oil and acrylic on canvas, bark cloth, papier-mâché sculptures, and textiles. These materials serve as vessels for examining how moments and memories imprint themselves on our inner worlds. The expansive canvas symbolizes the infinite possibilities of experience, while bark cloth—an ancient material deeply embedded in African traditions—offers a tactile connection to ancestry, identity, and the land. Papier-mâché and textiles, with their layered construction and delicate strength, evoke the fragile yet enduring nature of memory as it is shaped by time.

Bark cloth is literally interwoven throughout this exhibition, a medium steeped in ritual and tradition. Its creation—a process of stripping and softening tree bark—symbolizes transformation and resilience. In African cultures, bark cloth transcends its materiality, embodying stories of community, belonging, and survival. Each fiber carries echoes of the past, serving as a bridge between generations and a repository of collective memory.

In When the Wind Blows, bark cloth becomes a symbolic bridge connecting the tangible and the intangible. It speaks to the layered histories and emotions that define human existence: laughter and sorrow, struggle and triumph, longing and connection. By juxtaposing bark cloth with the fluidity of paint and the textural richness of other mediums, the exhibition draws out the dualities of the human experience—timeless yet fleeting, intimate yet universal.

Through this collection, viewers are invited to reflect on how memory shapes and defines us, much like the wind etches its presence onto the earth. Grounded in both material and concept, these works reveal the silent power of memory—ever-moving, ever-shaping, and everlasting.

To view the works and begin your purchase, click to enter Exhibition's Online Viewing Room