What we carry in love, 2026

Bakare Abubakri-sideeq Babatunde  

In life, we encounter different kinds of people some who come to comfort us, and others who leave us with unseen wounds. Yet, we often love and embrace them all the same, without fully knowing their true intentions. In love we carry not only the warmth of connection but also the uncertainty of what lies beneath.

What We Carry in Love reflects on the unseen emotional weight that accompanies human connection. In life, we encounter different kinds of people some who offer comfort, and others who quietly introduce pain yet we often hold them all with the same openness of heart. This work captures that fragile space where love exists without full understanding.

The figure embraces a seemingly tender presence, symbolizing the people we choose to hold close. Yet beneath this gesture of affection lies ambiguity an awareness that intentions are not always visible, and that what we carry in love can be both healing and harmful. The patched Ankara fabric becomes a visual language of experience, each fragment representing encounters, memories, and the layered complexity of relationships.

Her calm but introspective gaze suggests acceptance rather than resistance a recognition that love does not always come with clarity. Sometimes, it asks us to trust, to endure, and to learn.

Ultimately, the piece speaks to the duality of human connection: that in giving love, we also carry uncertainty, and in embracing others, we unknowingly carry the weight of who they truly are.