Our Stalled Project:
Glass Sculptures for Uhuru Gardens
Since this project seems to have completely stalled—with no contact in over six months and no clear path forward—we’ve decided to showcase the works we created for the new museum at Uhuru Gardens. Here’s what we’ve been working on, what we’ve achieved, and where things stand.
The Commission
We were commissioned to craft four glass relief sculptures for the entranceway of the museum. Our two guiding themes were:
Conservation – with a special focus on the elephant.
Peace and Unity– reflecting harmony and togetherness.
O0ne of the very interesting ideas that was developed during our time with the committee was that the panels shoukd be ractike, possibly even containing braille within the glass.
Theme 1: Conservation – The Elephant
For the conservation theme, we designed two float glass sculptures. Around the time of our commission, an elephant in the national park gave birth to twins—a rare and inspiring event. We chose this as one of our focal points. Before that, we’d already explored the elephant theme and developed the concept of the “Shattered Elephant” or “Eviscerated Elephant”.
The idea? This massive, majestic creature is incredibly vulnerable today. We captured that by showing the elephant’s form breaking down—degraded and fractured—through each stage of our casting process. We shared these panels with the project committee, and one version was chosen as the prototype for a large panel: 2 meters by 1 meter, based on the famous tusker, Satao.
What you see in the photo is a full-scale concrete—a record of each casting stage. These concretes let us revisit any stage and create new moulds for glass fusing if needed. So far:
The Twins panel is complete, made with 25mm-thick window glass that has a natural green tone. The Satao panel has its elephant part cast in glass. The final panel remains unfinished
Theme 2: Peace and Unity
For this theme, we created two float glass sculptures. We drew inspiration from the Kenyan flag’s shield and crossed spears, but flipped the design—bringing the spears and the hands holding them in front of the shield. This set the tone for the rest.
The first panel celebrates the traditional work of Kenyan people. Hands depict everyday life—picking tea, fishing, milking cattle, making music, sowing, harvesting, and more—all woven into a stunning composition. The second panel features a spiral of hands: over 42 hands representing Kenya’s diverse communities. We cast real people’s hands for authenticity.
Symbols of aggression appear, but they’re softened by hands of peace, blending into a powerful unity. At the spiral’s center, children’s hands—cast from real kids—form a circle, symbolizing the future. In the background, a simple outline of Kenya ties it all together.
Where We Are Now
All our designs were approved, and we turned them into full-scale sculptures. We made moulds to melt the glass into, ready to finish the project. But then, everything stalled. With little hope of completing it as planned, enough time has passed that we want to share what we’ve made. Our goal? To exhibit these sculptures sometime in 2025.
Stay tuned for updates on this journey—and thank you for taking a look at our work!