A recent exhibition featuring 16 Rwandan female artists was held at Kigali’s Rwanda Art Museum under the theme of reflecting on the environment.

Topics of the installations ranged from access to housing, urban planning and traditional architecture.

Titled Layers of Agency, the exhibition had works by women artists, architects, designers and mentors. They were Jemima Kakizi Akimanizanye, Noella Nibakuze, Sylvie Bora, Angella Ilibagiza, Natacha Muziramakenga, Louise Kanyange, Nanibah Chacon, Gretta Ingabire, Shemsa Neza, Melverna Aguilar, Madeline Lamb, Jolie Muhimpundu, Orlane Mwanayera, Cheryl Isheja, Christelle Muhimpundu, and Claudine Nishimwe.

The piece Renaissance is made using wires strung together with waste plastic bottles shaped into a tree. One of the branches holds a hanging silver ball and depicts planet Earth. The piece made by Jemima Kakizi, Greta Ingabire, and Shemsa Neza represents a damaged environment.

The Our Home Products installation depicts the past, present and future of homesteads and shows a unique series of houses from ancient traditional African homes made from grass, wattle and mud, to middle age structures of bricks and iron roof, to the present-day buildings of metal, wood and cement.

The installation uses sisal strings to string together all the different houses to show continuity. The miniature homes are typical of architectural models made of wood, sisal, soil, cardboards and paper.

All the collaborative and individual pieces of work show the different aspects of Layers of Agency and are the result of an 18-month virtual fellowship administered by the Soul of Nations Foundation’s Indigenous International and the Green Architecture Project in Kigali, Rwanda.