Jeffie Magina the Great

Kenyan painter Michael Soi portrays hard-hitting topics such as China's ...

NGURE'S DO-IT-YOURSELF ART VIDEOS HAVE PRACTICAL VALUE

 

                                                           Evans Ngure with his sculptures

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (poted September 15, 2020)

Evans Ngure had a marvelous ‘up-cycled’ 3D art exhibition at Alliance Francaise last July which, thanks to COVID-19, few people came out to see. But his ‘Wheels of Life’ show remains online for fans to view, both on the artist’s YouTube channel and at ussuu.com, posted by Alliance Nairobi.

But what keeps me coming back to his YouTube channel at ‘Evans Ngure Art’ is not so much the AF show catalogue which features a wide array of his funky upcycled sculptures. These are mainly quirky creatures which Ngure magically assembled out of everything from bike handlebars, spokes, scissors, and bells to belt buckles, beads, buttons and light bulbs.

What is even more intriguing are Ngure’s informative art- and ‘how to make it’- videos that he has been posting regularly online since mid-July. What are especially appealing about the videos is that they are not only practical, insightful and infused with first-hand experience of the former ‘Junk Artist-in-Chief’ who now simply calls himself ‘Evans Ngure Art’.

                                                                                         Evans' Bull

They are also quite relevant as very many of them have been born in response to queries posed to him which are not necessarily related to aesthetics. That could be why he recently posted a short (eight to ten minute) video on ‘How to Sell Your Jewelry in Kenya and Abroad.’ Filled with what others might consider ‘trade secrets’, Ngure has no problem sharing practical information about where to go, when and how to make sales. He might be schooling the next generation of promising ‘junk artists’, youth who could one day be competing with him for the market on contemporary art. But clearly, Ngure doesn’t have a problem giving away useful tips of a trade that he’s pioneered along with elder artists like Kioko Mwitiki, Alex Wainaina and the Ugandan sculptor John Odoch Ameny.

In fact, only a fraction of Ngure’s videos are about jewelry-making, and none thus far are about how to create 3D sculptures like those he had in his ‘Wheel of Life’ exhibition.

“Those will come later on in my program, when I am talking about collage and assemblages,” says Ngure who might soon be called not ‘Commander-in-Chief of Junk Art’ as one of his videos is titled, but Junk Prof-in-Chief since he’s taken quite a systematic approach to his upcycling tutorials.

“I post my DIY [Do it Yourself] videos every Wednesday,” says the artist referring to his pithy clips on topics like ‘How to make’ a Bottle-Top Broach Pin, a Button Bracelet or a shiny silver Coin pair of earrings.

“Then on Saturdays, I post videos on related topics, often responding to questions posed to me,” says Ngure whose tips include home improvement-type videos like ‘How to install a floating shelf’ and ‘How to install an artwork using drawer sliders’. Videos such as these might not sound intriguing initially. But then, it’s fun just to see how Ngure comes up with these ingenious inventions and practical innovations upcycling objects deemed useless by some but transformed by the artist into clever means of decorating one’s household.

                                                                                            Evans" Shark fish

It’s a wonder that Ngure reveals so much of how he creates his art and jewelry. He says he isn’t planning on getting rich by posting his videos, at least not yet.

“I just enjoy getting this information out,” says the artist whose videos are surprisingly professional as they feature upbeat music and a variety of camera angles on the process of making a piece of jewelry or some other home-improvement item (like an all-purpose scrubber which Ngure uses to polish his semi-precious old coins).

“I’m the one who does all the camera- and sound-work as well as the editing,” confesses the artist who creates all his YouTube videos in his studio at Githurai.

“I don’t stay far from there,” says Ngure who has been creating videos non-stop throughout the pandemic. And while he uses public means (PSV) to get from home to work, he’s careful to practice social distancing (and to wear a mask) even on the matatus he takes.

A graduate of Kenyatta University’s Fine Art Department, Ngure recalls that he initially majored in painting. But then, his lecturer, Anne Mwiti suggested he try working in mixed media, including found objects (also known as junk). Her advice changed everything for the artist whose imagination seems to have been liberated once recycled materials became his main media of expression. His work has been noted by UNEP as well as BBC in their recent series on the African Renaissance.

 

BEYONCE'S BLACK IS KING IS 'DOPE'

BEYONCE’S ‘BLACK IS KING’ REVEALS THE SINGER AS MEGA-ARTIST

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted August 31 2020)

After watching Beyonce’s new film, ‘Black is King’, one can’t help feeling her musical performance in Disney’s ‘Lion King’ was a prelude to her own creation of this sumptuous cinematic show.

Taking a cue from the acclaimed coming-of-age classic that Disney just re-presented in 2019 following the film’s original animated success in 1994, this mother of three explores alternative avenues of upbringing that a new-born black child might take on his way to becoming a king.

In the process, Beyonce reimagines a whole range of extravagant artistic possibilities that she’d make available to her own black prince and future ‘king’ (played in BiB by her son, Sir Carter).

But don’t expect ‘Black is King’ to be a children’s film. The child serves as a metaphor for the new opportunities that Beyonce takes up as a black artist who feels absolutely entitled to explore on as vast a scale as she can find, including an ocean, open sky and expansive Tunisian sandscape.

Filmed in the same spirit as Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’, Beyonce is black, proud and inclined to prove her prowess as not simply a singer, but a filmmaker as well.

The African American entertainer who is also a choreographic queen actually scripted, starred in and co-produced her latest creation with one of the biggest entertainment firms in the world, Disney.

Creating far more than a glorified music video, the sheer beauty of the film’s cinematography quickly confirms that ‘Black is King’ has a deeper, more majestic message.

It’s complicated, colorful and almost cosmic at times. It’s also lyrical, steeped in African proverbs, wisdom and poetry, including verse by the Kenya-born Somali writer, Warsan Shire, (whose poetry also featured in Beyonce’s 2016 feature-length film ‘Lemonaid’).

Best of all, the music by both African and African American artists is diverse, unflagging and invariably accompanied by exquisitely attired and choreographed dancers often led by Beyonce herself.

In fact, ‘Black is King’ might alternately be re-named Black is Queen since it is the Queen B’s (as she is known to her most adoring fans) movie from start to end. Yet her message is not merely self-glory. Not by any means. For while her film confirms that ‘Black is beautiful’ in the most emphatic way, it also embodies the singular message that ‘black lives matter.’

But rather than the film finally making a political statement, one ultimately sees that Beyonce is also talking about family. For towards the end of the film, who should show up but her mega-music mogul husband and rapper J-Z. Not that he plays a major role in the film. He has one number with his wife, but he mostly hangs out with their three kids, including their twins.

But just as ‘Lemonade’ was ultimately a music video feature that proclaimed her independence from her cheating spouse, so ‘Black is King’ is implicitly about reconciliation and the joy of being Black and beautiful, and mattering as a family that is regal, righteous and richly gifted in many different ways.

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Best Female Jazz Band

MUSYOKA’S COVID-CONSCIOUS ARTISTRY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 26 August 2020)

Part One of Michael Musyoka’s first solo exhibition entitled ‘Time and other Constructs’ was filled with mystery, magic and a mixture of vibrant color, restless motion and curious charm in 2019. It also ensured we’d be pleased to hear he opened Part Two of ‘Time…” at One Off Gallery Saturday, 27^th August. It will run through mid-October.

COVID protocol was required to attend the opening event with the artist on hand. But friends and fans of the Brush Tu Artists Collective co-founder were prepared with masks and mindful of social distancing. And for those who couldn’t make it to the show, One Off’s owner-curator Carol Lees has most of Michael’s works up on the gallery’s website.

Part Two’s paintings have just as much magic, color mix and dramatic action as those in Part One. Musyoka still has a fondness for his stubby-legged and stout little men who seem to be avatars for the artist’s own emotions. That was one of the ‘giveaways’ shared by the artist in a ‘what’s app’ chat shortly before the show’s opening.

Acknowledging that part two is indeed a continuation of his first solo exhibition a year ago at Red Hill Gallery, one can nonetheless see qualitative differences in this second collection of almost twenty paintings. In part one, many more of his colorful avatars were on their knees, keeping us wondering, were they in prayer or bondage? Were they asking for divine guidance or for a mortal release from anyone of many man-made constructs, the most dominant one being time.

Musyoka has been a master of metaphor in much of his artistry since he emerged from Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art (BIFA) less than a decade ago. Often featuring clown-like characters (like his chubby little men), one might initially find them amusing and innocent. But then you realize they are part of a larger drama that the artist has in mind, revealed partially through his art.

But if Michael kept us guessing in Part One of ‘Time’, one at least felt we knew he was talking about man-made constraints, those limitations that society puts on us in the name of civility and social cohesion, proper socialization and the public protocol of ‘right and wrong’, good and bad.

Some of us may not think of ‘time’ as man-made. But just recall how you made a doctor’s appointment and came late. You either got sent home or to the back of the line. Your ‘punishment’ was having to wait the whole day before you could see the MD. But some ‘constructs’ are not so easily appeased. Violation of them may lead to more stringent forms of punishment, which would seem to be a theme that Musyoka aims to explore in Time, Part Two.

For while he still includes several paintings of little men dashing around as if they are rushing to ‘keep time’, he has fewer kneeling as if in prayer for forgiveness. Instead, in one powerful work he paints more muscular men dressed in a dark brownish-black blend and all running as if on a collision course toward the painting’s centre. In another, his men seem to be floating aimlessly in space, but it doesn’t look like they’ve been freed from time. They could only be momentarily adrift, unclear about what to do without their social construct.

But the most telling characters animating Musyoka’s second installment of ‘Time and other Constructs’ is more revealing of the artist’s main concern. They are the ‘Time Servants’ and are guys being most severely punished. These are the men being treated literally like dogs on a leash. One can easily see their misery, but why? Apparently, it’s because they’ve been deemed disobedient, truant or somehow in violation of the dominant man-made rules.

Unpacking Musyoka’s art, one can see that Part Two is dark. It’s also more attuned to our COVID-infused time, when violation of the new rules (like wearing masks, sanitizing and social distancing) can be punishable not merely by shame and humiliation but by disease and ultimately by death.

Several paintings in the show feature just one stubby guy who is clearly down. He’s been shot with arrows that suggest he may have already met his fateful end.

Just before the show’s opening, Musyoka noted the irony of his exhibition being about ‘constructs’ at a time when new COVID rules compel us obey the new rules or else we won’t get to see his Part Two showcase in person. So stay safe and follow the rules!

 

PAINTINGS ‘SMALL THINGS’ BY A BIG TALENT: AGNES WARUGURU

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 16 September)

Agnes Waruguru brings a breath of fresh air to Nairobi’s art scene with her first solo exhibition entitled ‘Small Things to Consider’ at Circle Art Gallery. Having opened September 9 and running through October 8, Agnes’ show has the honor of being Circle Art’s first public opening since the pandemic shut it (and most everything else) down.

Visitors can only come by appointment and agree to follow all the safety precautions, including masks and all the rest. But it is worth making the effort just to see the way Circle continues to support up-and-coming young artists and appreciate their various styles of experimentation.

In Agnes’ case, she was trained to be a painter [in Kenya and the US] but chose early on to break away from the conventional approach of working on primed, stretched canvas. She prefers cottons, citing the Kenyan lasso or kitenge as the home-grown inspiration that reveals one of her ‘small things to consider’, namely her affinity for her heritage and indigenous culture. It was during her studies in California and Georgia that she realized she wanted her art to celebrate Kenyan culture and not merely emulate Western traditions and techniques.

And while she uses some acrylic paints and pastels in her art, Agnes also employs traditional skills learned from childhood such as stitching, knitting, embroidery and crocheting. At the same time, she experiments with everything from charcoal, India ink and colorful dyes to grass! She is also inclined to work with found objects, particularly the trashed netting that she found both around Nairobi and in Lamu where she went on a six-week residency in 2019.

Agnes doesn’t describe herself as an environmental artist. But her affinity with nature is apparent in much of the semi-abstract artworks in her first solo show. Consisting of paintings, drawings and a series of mono-prints that she produced in Lamu, her show reflect a refreshing spontaneity, confidence and freedom which has resulted in art that is fearlessly unconventional.

For instance, the moment you step into the gallery (or even check out her show online), you will see what looks like a clothes-line on which the artist hung assorted fabrics that could be mistaken for either rags or representative flags. Their significance is obscure yet evocative.

Much of her exhibition seems to have been inspired by her time at the Coast. For instance, it is in the first painting she created after arriving on Lamu island that she not only reveals her elation at being at the ocean and under a brilliant yellow sun. It is also in that first work that she felt compelled to paint not simply with brushes, but also with grasses that surrounded her as she painted in the open air, in ‘plein air’ style.

That same sense of joy and spontaneity comes through in much of her work, her paintings being at once atmospheric and translucent. Her colors are sun-kissed, but slightly muted as they often blend in what feels like a cross between carnival- and rainbow-hues. This is because her version of ‘priming’ her cotton consists of sequentially pouring a mixture of water, acrylic paint and dye over her fabric. After that, she allows that magical blend to take its time being absorbed and forming its own contours and organic designs. And then one can see her love of nature coming through in works like ‘On Paradise, Swamps and other lands’, ‘In reality, dreaming of palms’ and ‘Luc Rose’.

Agnes’ delicate mono-prints seem slightly too diminutive to be hung as they are on one of the gallery’s vast white walls. Nonetheless, the miniature prints that she produced, using acrylic paints on paper and pressed together with pieces of discarded industrial mesh, create a fascinating effect. Observing that she used several kinds of netting in her show, Agnes admits that her distress at seeing the trashed plastic bags and the metallic industrial mesh, led her to experiment in ingenious ways and ultimately to produce highly original art.

Meanwhile, one still has time to get to One Off Art Gallery to see Michael Musyoka’s solo exhibition entitled ‘Time and Other Constructs II’. The show carries on a philosophical conversation begun the year before by the artist at Red Hill Art Gallery where his first ‘Time and Other Constructs’ introduced his time-bound avatars.

Then on September 26^th, the show of Elias Mungora’s newest paintings opens at One Off.

Finally, don’t miss Camille Wekesa’s exhibition, ‘Lattices’ at Red Hill Art Gallery through October 18.

 

 

RBG: DOC FILM ON REVOLUTIONARY HIGH COURT JUSTICE

DOC FILM SHOW REVOLUTIONARY ROLE OF HIGH COURT JUSTICE RBG

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 19 September 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsberg died September 18^th of colon cancer. But the legal legacy of ‘Notorious RBG’ as she is known to her many millennial fans, will live on thanks to both the trail-blazing role she played arguing against gender discrimination up to the US Supreme Court and to the documentary film, ‘RBG’ about her life. The doc film and the book ‘Notorious RBG’ both came out in 2018.

There are actually two films that came out that year about RBG, who was only the second female to become a United States Supreme Court Justice. The other was a romanticized version which (like the documentary) highlights her remarkably successful marriage to fellow lawyer, Marty Ginsberg, whom she credits as being the key to her pioneering career.

Having seen both films, I prefer the documentary just because the woman herself is present in a large part of it. Beautifully edited to include film footage, photographs, interviews with those who knew her well, and embellished with observations from RBG herself, the film is wonderfully upbeat. For instance, in one interview, she is asked if she knows how she got nicknamed ‘Notorious R.B.G’. She responds that it comes from the Rapper ‘Notorious B.I.G’ whose rap music we hear as part of the film’s mixed musical soundtrack.

The film also elaborates on her remarkable journey from a lower middle class upbringing in the Bronx in  New York all the way to first Cornell University, then Harvard Law and Cornell Law Schools, to tenured professor and practicing human rights lawyer with the ACLU up to her appointment (by President Bill Clinton in 1993) to Supreme Court Justice.   

What both films make crystal clear is the way RBG reshaped the course of American history by first identifying and then arguing against sex (or gender) discrimination even before she was a Justice. Basing all her arguments on the US Constitution, the first legal precedent she set was before the High Court in relation to the 14^th Amendment. That is the one providing ‘equal protection’ to ‘all persons’ under the law. Her persuasive argument was that women were included as persons. Just as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice argued (before her) that African Americans were ‘persons’ and therefore protected by the 14^th, so she too strove for social justice and equal rights among the sexes using legal means; and it worked. She effectively revolutionized the rule of law in the US.

But her successes are under assault right now. With her passing, the liberal wing of the Supreme Court could lose the progress made by both RBG and Justice Marshall with a US Senate appointment of a conservative justice.

This is one reason why this film is so timely. It provides the context for understanding both the revolutionary impact that RBG made both legally and culturally. And it amplifies the issues at stake which not only affect women and men in the US. They could have a ripple effect internationally as well.

STORMZY - SUPERHEROES

LUPE THE LOVING DAUGHTER

 Just a story.

I met Lupe again today. i had come last week to Mount Sinai Hospital on the southwest side of Chicago to get a chest xray to see how my lungs are doing. I had         pneumonia back 2017 and have never quite regained the energy level i had before one invisible bug decided to invade my mind, then my body. i had been told i would never fully recover since i now have scars all over my lungs. But i cant afford to lose my mobility so i am gradually pushing myself to keep on moving, whether i can breathe or not.

So family has insisted i go see a doctor to determine 'what's wrong' with me and whether i can improve. So i went and met Lupe, sent there before i saw the radiologist. of course, the cash must be transacted first. But as i am not working here in the US, except for the stories i write for my Kenyan paper, the Business Daily, Lupe gave me a discount on the cost of my xray. it was still almost $100, but it was much improved compared to what i was meant to pay.

Anyway, i was back because i was supposed to get a test checking my heart which i believe is doing just fine. anyway, we determined that the cost of the EKG Echo was almost $5000. Yep, five thousand dollars or more than KSh500,000 or half a million shillings!!!  with the discount she kindly offered to give me (who does not have insurance), i would still have to pay $1000 almost, which i do not have. so the test is off.

But Lupe was on. I asked her about her name. Did it have a meaning? oh yes, it was given to her by her mother and it meant Lupe, named after the virgin Mary. she said she was the fifth born out of her mother's eight, but her mom had only lived to be 50 years old. she died of lung cancer since she smoked too much and she also had some other cancer, poor woman. what made matters worse was that after the 8th, the father left them all. he just walked out one day and never walked back in. her mother struggled hard to make ends meet, but Lupe said it was tough.

Her father went and married another woman who had him move to Houston. "She never liked us calling our father because she was suspicious that we would ask him for money." said Lupe. Sadly, she and her siblings never saw their father for 32 years. But one day, the second wife called his son, Lupe's brother and she said she was on her death bed and wanted the children to come collect him and keep him alive cuz she was not going to live long.

'Yes, we went and got him and  cared for him until his death," says Lupe, answering my question, what did she do. i was amazed that she and her siblings could be so welcoming of a man who deserted them when they really needed him. But Lupe did not regret keeping him or feeding him his favorite food. she said it gave her pride to know he loved her special bone soup that she made especially for him. she said he devoured it as if it was candy. " That woman never let him have the food and pleasures he really lived," Lupe said, pleased that in spite of his having Alzheimer's and not being fully cognizant of her presence, she was deeply moved to finally have a father to forgive and love. i was touched and told her she was a lovely story teller. she had no reason to tell me her life story. but she had taken to me the first time i had come to her and she had wanted to offer me charity but i didnt have the necessary paper work. what a lovely woman.

WAKANDA KING MORPHS INTO NYC COP

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted BD September 8, 2020)

^{There must be a reason Chatwick (Black Panther) Boseman’s second to last film ‘21 Bridges’ apparently bombed at the box office late last year. Why else would the public have missed the chance to see the last film but one that King T’Challa made before he died suddenly on 28 August?}

^{Here we had the biggest Black actor starring in his first post-Black Panther role. Yet for some reason, the critics panned the film leading to few people seeing the beloved Boseman morph from being a king to becoming a New York City cop. It got mediocre ratings, especially by comparison to ‘Black Panther’ or any of the other Avenger films that Boseman co-starred in.}

^{I admit 21 Bridges might not have been the best film for him to make after he dazzled the world in the duo-roles of King T’Challa and Black Panther. If I had been his agent, I would have recommended he wait until the script for Black Panther 2 was done. Ryan Coogler, the BP director and screenwriter for BP2 admitted it broke his heart that he’d never see his dear friend become T’Challa ever again.}

^{But frankly, 21 Bridges wasn’t half bad, that is, if you don’t mind shoot-‘em-up cop thrillers about drug deals, dirty cops and our hero Chatwick being the one cop who’s clean and incorruptible. As he put it in the film, it was ‘in his DNA’. That’s because his father was a clean cop before him who had worked to root out corruption but was killed in the process.}

^{To me, the real problem of 21 Bridges is not the plot. In fact, it’s solid action-adventure with Chatwick doing his best to give his character soul, depth and purpose. The problem more than likely is political. It’s probably because the timing wasn’t right for public to watch a film that exposed police corruption including cops killing with impunity when it served their interests.}

^{That is who most of the cops are that Detective Andre Davis (Chatwick) must deal with after several of them are mysteriously murdered by burglars sent to grab a huge cache of drugs that the dirty cops have an interest in. Andre already has a history of challenging dirty cops. As the film opens, we learn he’s actually killed several of them in self-defense.}

^{After that, the story unfolds fast. Its title derives from Manhattan Island’s 21 bridges which Andre commands be shut down (along with the trains and planes) to block the cop killers any avenue of escape.}

^{His fellow cops have their own agenda, but I won’t spoil the story for you. I’ll just say that ‘Black Lives Matter’, the social justice movement was already protesting police impunity before the film opened. So despite 21 Bridges revealing harsh realities about cop corruption, by its amplifying such a politically-sensitive theme, the film could have easily offended powerful forces that didn’t appreciate the cinematic exposure and ruled ‘thumbs down’. After that, the film’s screenings were few.}

 

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