2026.04.18－2026.05.17

THANDIWE MURIU, Ichinyo- More Than Half

KYOTOGRAPHIE African Residency Program
In collaboration with Demachi Masugata Shopping Arcade

“Milk and honey have different colours, but they share the same house peacefully”
African Proverb

During her residency in Kyoto, Thandiwe Muriu immersed herself in the tradition of Japanese textile craftsmanship. Her journey through Kyoto’s fabric landscape inspired a new chapter of her Camo series, titled More Than Half, where she reflects on themes of belonging and one’s place in a community.
Muriu shifts her focus from camouflage to coexistence, anchoring her subjects in the renowned symbol of Japanese culture, the kimono, while setting them against a widely accepted backdrop of ‘Africanness’, the wax textile. By doing so she aims to recognise the experience of Afro-Asian (Blasian) women, whose identities naturally
bridge two cultures. Although multiculturalism has been promoted in recent years in Japan, judgment rooted in appearance continues to draw lines between “Japanese” and “non- Japanese”. Within this context, the duality of the Blasian identity can become a struggle. The term hāfu (half), commonly used in Japan to describe persons with
one Japanese parent and one parent of another origin, reflects an assumption of incompleteness rather than wholeness.
Muriu’s portraits assert that both origins form a singular, unified presence, channelling the spirit of (Ichinyo):the Buddhist term meaning “all things are fundamentally one” and expressing that what may appear divided is, at its core,
already whole.
Through her artistic choices and by employing a spectrum of skin tones as her palette, identities overlap, diverge and merge, challenging fixed definitions of purity. In (Ichinyo), Muriu evokes a world where belonging is not granted by
resemblance, but expanded by existence.

▍THANDIWE MURIU
Thandiwe Muriu is a Kenyan artist exploring themes of identity, connections and empowerment through her works. Her pieces are deeply inspired by textile narratives, primarily the wax and the East African kanga fabric, which she uses as a canvas to redef ine, celebrate, and remember. Still based in Kenya, she has exhibited worldwide including at the 60th Venice Biennale Collateral Event Passengers in Transit presented by the CCA Lagos, WAX! Exhibition at Musée de l’Homme Paris, and I Am Because You Are a solo show at New York University, among others. She has also
participated in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Residency Program, as well as a residency program with the National Museum of Kenya.

 

▍About the exhibition

THANDIWE MURIU, <em>Ichinyo- More Than Half</em>
April 18 (Sat) – May 17 (Sun), 2026
Closed on: Apr 20, 21, 27, May 7, 11
11:00–18:00
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Venue: DELTA/KYOTOGRAPHIE Permanent Space
（62 Sanei-cho, Teramachi Higashi-iru, Masugata-dori, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-0826)