Wuh.ey - “Maji ya Kwanza”

From the series: African Fusion
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 60 × 60 cm
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP

Wuh.ey – “Maji ya Kwanza”

A figure stands chest-deep in water. Dozens of washing machines are lined up around her like modern altars to purity. On her head, she wears a crown of shells and woven straws, her face hidden behind a golden mask. "Maji ya Kwanza" – the first water – is an image about purification, remembrance, and the paradox of progress.

The water, once an element of origin, is both corrupted and sacred here. It reflects not only the sky, but also the condition of a world attempting to cleanse itself. Between fish and machine, ritual and garbage, human and symbol, a new equilibrium emerges: the sacred in the age of industrialization.

Wuh.ey transforms the body into a bridge between two systems of meaning. The washing machines—symbols of modern purity—stand there like sacrificial vessels of capitalism. The masked figure, on the other hand, carries the memory of an older understanding of purification: a spiritual one, not a hygienic one.

The shells around her head are reminiscent of Yemoja, the goddess of water, protector of mothers and the seas. But in this urban vision, Yemoja is no longer a distant deity—she is present, in the heart of the city, surrounded by waste, beauty, and contradictions.

"Maji ya Kwanza" is a parable about transformation. The work asks what we want to purify—the world or our conscience? And what remains when spirituality transforms into the aesthetics of consumerism?

Wuh.ey answers with a silent, powerful image: The goddess does not rise from the sea, she rises from the machine.