"NI SURU KEHINDE"

Acrylic on canvas, 2023

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"ni suru, Kehinde" (be patient, kehinde).

The final, but most profound painting in the Trips collection. This work emerged from a deeply personal reckoning with loss and quantum presence. Drawing from the Yoruba phrase "ni suru" meaning "be patient" the piece explores my relationship with my twin sister Taiwo, who passed shortly after our first birthday. After a year of working through persistent memories in the creation of the collection, this painting manifests a moment of transcendent communication where boundaries between self and other, presence and absence, dissolved into a singular message of being patient with my embodied reality. The end of yet another narrative in my journey, and a spiritual reconciliation with experiencing both loss and gain at the same time.

Taiwo, my sister, occupied the space in my room that evening. She spread out in my space like she is me and I am her and she said to me calmly, "ni suru kehinde. you've done the work, now you must wait."