Sarah Elawad’s When the War is Over creates a space for reflection on Sudan’s conflict through textiles and cultural resilience
Installation view of Sarah Elawad’s When the War is Over on the windows of The Africa Center, New York. Courtesy of The Africa Center.
In June 2025, British Sudanese artist Sarah Elawad transformed the windows of The Africa Center in Harlem with When the War is Over, a striking public installation that quietly confronted one of the world’s most urgent and underreported humanitarian crises: the war in Sudan.
Commissioned as part of The Africa Center’s 2025 Plaza Commission, Elawad’s site-specific work brought a sense of intimacy and resistance to Fifth Avenue, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and reckon with the cost of conflict and cultural erasure. Her work centred around the tobe—a traditional Sudanese garment worn by women, which Elawad reimagined in bold contemporary patterns and forms. As both material and metaphor, the tobe became a symbol of beauty, memory, and endurance across generations.
The installation took its name from a line by Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo: “When the war is over I will make space for my feelings.” This sentiment resonated deeply with Elawad, who wrote, “Amid loss and upheaval, we rarely have space to grieve, to feel, or to simply be.” Her installation offered that space—not only for grief, but also for resilience, tenderness and cultural continuity.
Since war erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), millions have been displaced, and civilian life has been devastated. Over 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes, while countless others endure extreme hardship under a collapsing infrastructure and deepening humanitarian emergency.
Rather than depicting war directly, Elawad responded through form, texture, and symbolism. Her reinterpretation of the tobe stood as a quiet act of defiance and care, asserting the cultural presence of Sudanese women even in the face of violence and erasure. The window display—vibrant, textural, and emotionally resonant—created an immersive experience for passersby and a gesture of solidarity for those connected to Sudan’s unfolding tragedy.
The installation debuted at the 47th annual Museum Mile Festival on June 10, 2025, an evening that included a performance by Alsarah and the Nubatones, a collective that explores Nubian “songs of return,” migration, and the musical ties between Sudan and Egypt. The pairing of Elawad’s visual work with Alsarah’s music underscored the diasporic spirit of the project, connecting memory and creativity across borders.
Born in London and now based in Brooklyn, Elawad holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale School of Art. Her practice is informed by a collage-like, experimental aesthetic that incorporates textiles, garments, prints, video, and installation. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Doha, and beyond. Her work is held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library, The British Library, and the Asia Art Archive.
With When the War is Over, Elawad did not attempt to offer a resolution or explanation. Instead, she made room for emotional complexity—for mourning without spectacle, for cultural memory without simplification. Her work acted as a kind of textile testimony, one that insisted on the visibility of Sudanese lives, stories, and traditions.
In a media landscape where Sudan’s war has received limited coverage, Elawad’s installation asked audiences to witness and to remember. Through vibrant fabrics and poetic language, she created a space of reflection on Fifth Avenue—a place to feel, to mourn, and perhaps, to imagine what healing might look like.
Learn more about the 2025 Plaza Commission and the context of art and crisis in Sudan here.
The installation is on view until May 10, 2026. For more information, please visit The Africa Center.
