TUMS AND LECCHINI: A TALE OF TWO ARTISTS AT ONE OFF

                                         A TALE OF TWO ARTISTS AT ONE OFF

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Mike Lecchini and Tums Yeshim are two European artists who, since last Saturday, October 30^th, have solo exhibitions at One Off Gallery.

Both could be described as ‘accidental artists’ since both were professionally trained in fields other than fine art. One’s an engineer by training who has been tinkering with ingenious gadgetry practically all his life. The other’s an architect whose houses have been described as works of art in their own right.

Both have worked professionally in their respective fields for some time. Yet the impulse to express themselves more artistically took them to the point where they are now showing their best works at One Off.

Tums, the engineer turned eccentric sculptor, has taken over The Loft with his delicate and rarefied works, while Mike, the architect turned painter has covered nearly all the Stables’ walls with his equally inspired abstract paintings.

Both men have concerns for proportion, balance, precision, and spacial relations in their art. Yet those concerns are manifest in very different ways by either artist.

In Lecchini’s case, he deals with lines, colors, and patterns geometrically, as if he was working out an analytical equation. His paintings feel like mathematical constructions in which his rectangles and squares generate a soothing, harmonizing effect. His color schemes further enhance that calming influence, given the consistency of his color patterns and his choices to situate specific hues next to one another.

If one has an opportunity to see any of the local homes that Mark has designed in Karen and Muthaiga, you will see the way his paintings echo his architectural strategies. Both are built with analytical as well as angular precision. Both bear witness to a simplicity and sleek, contemporary concept of refined line.

Yet it’s in the paintings that he plays with color, often after constructing perpendicular lines that take shape as grids. It’s there that he ponders which colors to use in the patterning and color coding of his works.

Tums also creates his sculptures with mathematical precision. Yet unlike Lecchini who works exclusively in oils, Tums creates complex sculptures out of found objects that he’s either picked up over the years from public and private trash sites or been given by friends who know he’s got eclectic tastes.

Best known for his marvelous mobile sculptures that most effectively reveal his fascination for delicate balance and funky features like metallic and glass bird wings that seem to fly, Tums has only one in this show since the rest have recently ‘flown the coup’ (been sold).

Yet his other pieces more than make up for his missing mobiles. One of the most stunning is a giant piece of driftwood which has an uncanny resemblance to some prehistoric precursor to contemporary man. “All I did to him was give him [steel] feet to stand on,” says Tums whose driftwood Neaderthal stands erect around four feet tall.

Yet if he did little to touch up the pristine beauty of the natural wood form, he took his time designing a miniature metallic globe that he says was the most precious piece in his show. It wasn’t the most peculiar however. That prize could easily go to his gold-leafed baboon scull which he’d also found unpainted in somebody’s dumpster.

Both Tums and Mark draw inspiration for their artistry from nature. One can easily see it in Tums’ birds, butterflies, and high-flying fish. It might seem less apparent in Mark’s abstract patterns. But the newest painting in his display reveals what the artist says might be a radically new trend, inspired by the recent explosion of colors in the floral garden that’s grown up just outside his weekend studio.

The studio itself is a kind of weekend retreat where the architect decamps and morphs into the contemplative artist who takes his time allowing his oils paints to work the magic he loves to see emerge on his canvas.

“I’m quite stressed throughout the week, but I find painting has a calming effect on me,” he tells BDLife. But he admits he might never have had this first solo exhibition if it hadn’t been for his girlfriend Talitha who arranged it all with One Off curator-director Carol Lees.

In contrast, it was Lees herself who came to Tums’ workshop-studio at Kitengela Glass Trust and, seeing his latest set of sculptures, (which he jokingly calls ‘trinkets’) invited him to have his own one-man exhibition through November 21^st.

Fortunately, One Off has room enough for both artists, the one born and raised in the UK, the other born in Cypress but raised right here in Kenya.

 

WOMEN-CENTRIC THEATRE WITH ESTHER, WANJIRU, OGUTU AT KCC

        WOMEN-CENTRIC SHOWS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT KENYA CULTURAL CENTRE

                                                                                  Wanjiru Mwawuganga in Roots

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 31 October 2021)

Esther Kamba and Wanjiru Mwawuganga have been involved in a glorious theatrical experiment orchestrated by the Maabara Productions founder-director Ogutu Muraya for the past few months.

The first public sightings of that experiment emerged last Sunday, October 24^th, when both women staged one-woman-shows back-to-back at an architecturally restructured Ukumbi Mdogo at Kenya National Theatre.

The first sign that something new was happening before our eyes came as we found the entrance to Cheche Gallery blocked and the audience ushered to the back side of the Conservatoire where we stepped into the ‘new’ theatre space through a black-walled tunnel.

The next innovation was the Gallery transformed into a theatre-in-the-round, all the better to watch Esther Kamba perform her gut-wrenching self-revelatory role in Dilation.

                                                                                  Esther Kamba in Dilation

Created by the actor as part of the experimental ‘work in progress’, Dilation felt like a deeply emotional autobiography of Esther’s life. Filled with significant symbols and abstract imagery, these are conveyed by the actor through an amazingly physical performance. Esther’s acrobatic dexterity is on display as she makes her way from birth and a playful childhood into global travels that leave her confused and apparently lost. In that conflicted state, she relieves herself of all her worldly belongings, leaving her emotionally ‘naked’ and vulnerable to scoundrels and other deceivers. Duped by who-knows-what, her level of pain and perplexity is heart-wrenching. Yet somehow, she chooses to pick up the shredded pieces of her life and carry on. She leaves us hanging in her heartbreak, but she’s succeeded in touching our hearts. Hers is a spellbinding performance that one feels was very honest as Esther performed her truth.

Wanjiru took a different tack. Less emotional and more analytical, she makes us come with her story and pursue her memories. Storytelling is her gift, and she remembers generations of women who she is heir to. Each tale is triggered by a photograph as she recalls stories of her grandmothers, precious mother, and even one wretched mother-in-law.

For me the most engaging aspect of her performance were her own stories, particularly those associated with the childbirth of her two kids and the physical pain associated with it. But even in these stories, I wished she had gotten more emotionally involved in the storytelling.

In the end, I was left with too many unanswered questions. For instance, why did the hospital not allow her to see her baby for two days after childbirth? What exactly had she learned from her first birthing experience to prepare her for the second? And why, getting out of hospital did she not recognize her first child? Those are mysteries I never got answers to.

Nonetheless, following the two performances, there was an open discussion with an audience eager to engage with the actors, to raise questions, make critical and constructive comments, and generally interact with the cast and director Ogutu Muraya.

In fact, during their performances, both actors took time to engage their audience as they told their stories. During hers, Esther had handed out syringe-like bubble-making instruments that a few audience members realized they were meant to use to blow bubbles as part of the show. In fact, the bubbles played an important role in the play as they represented illusive dreams that Esther tried to capture as she made her way in the world.

In Wanjiru’s case, it was family photos that nearly every audience member received as they walked into the performance. It fell to anyone holding a photo that matched one that Wanjiru held to interact with the actor as she used the photo image to tell stories about the important women in her life.

Esther also handed out the fabric scraps that had filled her big bag which came to symbolize so many things in the actor’s life. At one point, the bag seemed to represent her mother’s womb. At another, it symbolized the totality of Esther’s life, which in her darkest moment, she chose to empty as if that was what she felt about living generally. But again, the bag might have also symbolized home, since we had to wonder at the story’s end, if that is where she was headed with all her unresolved pain and shredded hopes.

Both Dilation and Roots are revelatory, woman-centric works that the actors may consider ‘works in progress’ but we found they gave us serious food for thought. Ogutu informed us the shows will next be staged in Germany, but we hope to see them again once the actors get back.

 

 

CIRCLE ART'S ANNUAL ART AUCTION EAST AFRICA PREVIEW

                      ART AUCTION PREVIEW JAM-PACKED WITH GEMS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 30 October 2021)

Offering a generous preview of this year’s Art Auction East Africa, the Circle Art Gallery has filled all their walls, plus some floor space for all the 60 plus paintings and sculptures that will be in the Art Auction.

The actual event will be held November 9^th in the Radisson Blu’s spacious ballroom. But if you just want to see this year’s fabulous selection of top-tier East African art, then be aware Circle still follows the COVID protocols. Otherwise, there are many surprises in this year’s showcase, most notably in the number of artists represented whose works haven’t been seen at the auction before.

With eight African countries represented in the auction, including Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, the few non-East African artists, like Robert Saidi, Charles Sekano, and Twins Seven Seven are exceptions whose presence only enhances the excitement of the show.

What’s equally exciting are the presence of so many Kenyan artists whose works were selected by Circle Art’s busy curator-director Danda Jaroljmek to be in this much-anticipated annual event. It’s no surprise to see works by Peterson Kamwathi, Joseph Bertiers, Fitsum Berhe, and Cyrus Kabiru whose home-made ‘radio’ and ‘blue Mamba’ bicycle sculptures signal more of the C-Stunners’ innovative genius. But then there are Kota Otieno’s  untitled ‘woven’ painting, Kaafiri Kariuki’s meticulous drawing of ‘Orchestra II’, and Joel Oswaggo’s whimsical village scene, painted years before he moved back to the village himself..

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of marvelous works by Kenyan artists like Jackie Karuti, Ehoodi Kichapi, Wanyu Brush, Michael Wafula, Tabitha wa Thuku, Sane Wadu, Gor Soudan, and Mazola wa Mwashighadi whose art is on display amidst that of venerable elders like Edward Njenga, Joni Waite, Kamal Shah, and the late Rosemary Karuga (who passed on earlier this year).

Danda didn’t shy away from bringing works by East African artists who’ve been long gone. Most notably Ugandan artists Geoffrey Mukasa and Eli Kyeyune,  Nigerian artist Twins Seven Seven and Tanzanians E.S. Tingatinga, George Lilanga, Robino Ntila, and Romano Lutwama as well as lesser-known painters like Doreen Mandawa, John Baptist de Silva, and Fabian Mpagi.

The founder and director of both the Art Auction East Africa and Circle Art has also been fearless about including a number of newcomers to the auction. They include young Ugandans like Muwonge Kyazzo Matthias and Banadda Godfrey who might have been mentored by Teresa Musoke whose art graces the cover of this year’s glossy catalogue.

The other marvelous thing about the preview is that one can get up close and personal with all the works, not necessarily to touch (please don’t), but to actually take some time and see what is rightfully considered contemporary African art.

This show is also special because one will have the chance to see the wide variety of media that the artists employ. Of course, there is plenty of oil or acrylic paint on either canvas or paper, enamel on board, and shredded newspaper. But there are also watercolors, charcoal with ink, colored and graphite pencils, and mixed media of various types. The sculptures also work in mixed media, from wood and scrap metal to soft steel, and spare parts.

The other diversity that one will find in this year’s art auction are the genres. To begin with, there are paintings and sculptures, etchings and woodcuts. But the paintings range from figurative, still life, and portraiture to surrealist, abstract and semi-abstract.

                                                                                               Geoffrey Mukasa

There is something for everyone in this show, starting with the Auction’s colorful catalogue which one needs to have, ideally in advance. Filled with well-researched information on the artists, what’s also useful to know in advance are the minimum and maximum range of bidding possibilities for every work in the show. The minimum is held strictly during the public bidding, but the maximum bids can defy gravity and end up at stratospheric heights. We have seen that in past years, especially as Circle Art sets up several phones for bidders, either local or global, who can call in and keep close track of how their sought-after piece is being handled on the auction floor.

As always, the range of valuation can seem inscrutable, inexplicable. For instance, bidding for one painting can start at Sh79,000 and potentially reach a max of Sh101,000. Meanwhile, another artist’s minimum will be Sh1.36 million while his max can potentially reach Sh2.05 million or more. That’s why it’s worth coming to the auction for the roller coast ride!

AFFORDABLE ART A YUMMY MIX OF YOUNG AND OLD, ESTABLISHED AND EMERGING ARTISTS

                             AFFORDABLE ART SHOW A STUNNING SUCCESS

                                                                   (top) Black Beauty by Dickson Nedia

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted October 29, 2021)

There is hardly a single event that Kenyan artists look forward to with greater anticipation than the annual Affordable Art Show. Organized by the Kenya Museum Society to, among other things, raise funds to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the National Museums of Kenya, the Art Show attracts literally hundreds of artists from all over Kenya as well as a few from neighboring states.

It’s a small cadre of committed workers, mainly volunteers who make the whole show happen, as it is doing this weekend (October 29-31) in the open-air courtyard of Nairobi National Museum.

“I’ve been doing the show for the past ten years,” says its executive director, Dr Marla Stone just a few hours before its Friday night opening. In fact, an annual KMS art exhibition had been running in the 1990s, but there had been a hiatus that required art lovers like Dr. Stone and her colleague, Wendy Karmali to revive the showcase for the sake of the both the artists and the Museum.

Working closely with the National Museum’s curator, Lydia Galavu, Stone and Karmali run a tight ship. They have to do so since the response from local artists is overwhelming. By now, they all know the drill: they can bring several artworks for screening but only a maximum of two will be accepted.

                                                                                                     By Giko

Everyone is invited on one specific day to bring their art to the Museum where artists line up in an orderly style and patiently wait their turn when their art is considered for inclusion or rejection in the show.

There’s one critical factor that both artists and organizers must agree on. And that is the price tag of each piece. With the a priori agreement that no artwork will sell for over Sh150,000, (which is why the show is called ‘affordable’) each artist can propose his or her price, but that tag is finally negotiated between the two parties.

“One reason artists love bringing their art to the Affordable Art Show is because they are practically assured their artwork will sell,” says Samuel Njuguna Njoroge.

Naturally, not all the artworks displayed on every inch of wall and panel space available gets sold. In fact, according to Dr Stone, a little less than half the works exhibited during the previous AA Show sold when KMS organized an extraordinary Affordable Art Show earlier this year.

“We decided to hold that show in April because we seriously wanted to raise funds for the Museum, and our usual fundraisers, such as our weekend safaris, had been hit by the lockdown,” recalls Stone.

                                                                                        By Kennedy Kinyua

She considers that show a success, and KMS was able to make their contribution to the National Museums. But she expects this show to be even more successful.

Why? For one thing, the April show had only 280 artworks selected, while the jurists, Stone, Karmali, and Galavu, selected no less than 300 mainly paintings this time round.

“There were very few pieces that we rejected,” says Lydia Galavu. “There were quite a few ‘emerging’ artists who’d recently come out of art school, and that also made a big difference. The calabre of work was higher we generally felt,” she adds.

What’s more, there are many more women in this year’s Show. We can still see familiar names of established female artists like Mary Ogembo, Patricia Njeri, Geraldine Robarts, and Leena Shah on display this weekend. But then, there are also newer names like Nadia Wamunyu, Naitiemu Nyanjom, Chela Chelagat, Sheila Bayley, Daisy Buyanzi, Marilyn Abwao, Yvonne Nzilani, and Fridah Ijai, few of whom have exhibited at the AA Show before.

What is also fun to see is how many established artists who have absented themselves from public displays in recent years have come out this year. They include artists like Hosea Muchugu (aka Giko), Kahara Miano, Sebastian Kiarie, and Chain Muhandi.

Then again, the rest of the show is a rich mix of familiar styles featuring everyone from Adrian Nduma, George Ngaruya, Evans Yegon, Adam Masava, and Leonard Ngure to Samuel Githui, Gomba Otieno, Jimmy Kitheka, Mike Kyalo and Njogu Kuria.

                                                                               Blue lady by Chela Chelagat

The organizers tried their best to classify the artworks according to their focus on either women, land- or seascapes, animals, or ‘large paintings’. But it seems there were more miscellaneous paintings revealing the wide range of imaginative approaches that many Kenyans explore.

Some of the works didn’t thrill me. But one artist who seems to come out every year with an award-winning work is Dickson Nedia. This year was no exception. His Black Beauty is a stunning work of portraiture.

RUNAWAY GRANNY OPENED MANY DOORS FOR WOMEN

 THE RUNAWAY GRANNY OPENED DOORS FOR WOMEN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Long before she began singing opera professionally, Rhoda Ondeng Wilhelmsen had dreamed of creating her own indigenous Kenyan opera and placing her notorious grandmother Nyanga at the centre of her storyline.

According to her ‘Personal Reflection [on] “Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother’, Rhoda first got the idea for her opera as a little girl. She used to love sitting in her granny’s small grass-thatched hut in the hilly village of Nyahera (Kisumu) and listen to Nyanga’s awe-inspiring story of how she ran away from local village life to join the missionaries and a radically different style of life.

Nyanga, the granny, was also a charismatic singer and storyteller who, despite her declining years, inspired Rhoda to develop similar skills. Included among them was the incentive to create Kenya’s first fully-staged indigenous opera, which is the production that had its world premiere this past weekend at Kenya National Theatre.

Technically, Nyanga is not the very first Kenya opera. That honor goes to ‘Ondieki the Fisherman’ which was composed by Francis Chandler, Rhoda’s high school English teacher. Chandler is the same composer who, at age 83 and at Rhoda’s request, took her granny’s story and composed the music and the libretto (lyrics) for Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother.

But that was just the beginning. Nearly half a century has passed since Rhoda was first inspired by her grandmother’s courage, daring, and radical willingness to open her heart and mind to a whole new way of thinking and living.

Much has gone into creating a production that has involved nearly 40 singers, a 40-member orchestra, a team of dancers, troupe of ten Kibera school children, and guest performers who have come from Norway, Germany, Uganda, US and UK.

Rhoda actually directed the first iteration of the show late in 2020. But even between then and the premiere night last week, the opera morphed into a full-scaled extravaganza, complete with exquisite voices, costuming, sound, sets, and lighting.

Rhoda, while remaining the show’s Executive Director and CEO of Baraka Opera Trust, handed over the artistic director’s baton to Dr. Julisa Rowe. The former Daystar University drama teacher, who had previously directed scores of productions, handled this monumental musical and theatrical event with deft determination and grace.

Rowe was assisted by the likes of Mike James, the former Starehe Boys music teacher, who served not only as the show’s executive producer but also as the musician who adapted and re-arranged Chandler’s orchestration to fit more effectively into the Kenyan context. At the same time, Ciru James served as the opera’s vocal coach, while Levy Wataka conducted an orchestra that featured everyone from the Nairobi String Quartet and first violinist David Ralek to a range of overseas guest musicians who had flown in just to be part of Rhoda’s opera. Meanwhile, the indigenous instrumentalists served as a counter-balance with their nyatiti, oruto, litunga, and ohangla drums.

One of the features of Nyanga that was also beautifully balanced was the contrast between pre-colonial Kenyan life with its cohesive village culture and the arrival of Western missionaries with their Bible and promise of everlasting life.

It was that promise of life eternal and conquest over death through Jesus Christ that convinced Nyanga (Lyndie Shinyega) apparently to ‘run away’ from home and join the Christians. There was also her attraction to the young Kenyan missionary Joel (Caleb Wachira) that made her flight even more understandable. But it was probably a combination of factors that impelled Rhoda’s granny to take that great leap of faith away from the past into an unknown future.

Either way, Nyanga is Rhoda’s tribute to and commemoration of the grandmother she describes as ‘runaway’ but who after the intermission and Act 2, went back to her dad (Anthony Mwangi), the village’s wise medicine man, to ask for his blessing. She wants to marry Joel as well as become a Christian, so it’s a big ask for her dad.

Ultimately, he gives his blessing to both Nyanga and Joel, but there is little doubt there’s ambivalence. Otherwise, there would have been many more young men and women who would have followed Nyanga right there and then.

Nyanga’s return and reconciliation didn’t come instantaneously. But for Rhoda, the fateful decision her granny made is the central reason why she and many other women and girls from her place have also gone to school and followed in Nyanga’s wake.

[In light of the issues currently being faced by Afghan women and girls who are losing opportunities to go to school due to Taliban misogyny, one may be even more appreciative of Nyanga’s radicalism and Rhoda’s applauding it via her world premiering Opera.]

SAM NJUGUNA: CHARMED BY LOCAL LANDSCAPES

                 CHARMED BY WELL-POPULATED LOCAL LANDSCAPES

                                          Samuel Njuguna Njoroge with his art at Village Market, October 19, 2021

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Samuel Njuguna Njoroge has been perfecting his landscape painting techniques since he was a child growing up in Banana Hill.

No ordinary ‘hill’, Banana Hill had a studio at the time where the young Njoroge used to go and immerse himself in the space where local artists were teaming up and dreaming of ways to become better painters and sculptors by sharing their art materials as well as their skills. All so-called ‘self-taught’ artists, they were mentoring one another and including young Njoroge in the process.

Among those early workers were artists like James Mbuthia, Sebastian Kiarie, Martin Kamuyu, Joseph Cartoon, Njuguna’s big brother Willie Wamuti, Rahab Njambi, and of course, the founder of the studio, Shine Tani.

“The studio was my first art school,” recalls Njoroge whose solo exhibition just opened up on the top floor of Village Market and runs through November 1st. Technically, he’s the solo painter while junk art sculptor Alex Wainaina shares the space, contrasting Njuguna’s paintings with his metallic butterflies and African masks hung decoratively to enhance the overall interest, charm, and beauty of this colorful exhibition.

Njuguna has been part of the local art scene since 2004 when he was still in secondary school. Ever eager to improve his knowledge and artistic skills, the young painter has frequently moved into new art spaces over the years. He was part of the Nuru studio, based in Ruaka, where he first met Mbuthia Maina who was and still is closely associated with Maasai Mbili in Kibera.

He shifted to Kilele Art Centre with Patricia Njeri, John Ndungu, Irene Wanjiru, and Alex Wainaina, also in Ruaka where he now has own home studio.

Njuguna has also given his time to teaching children’s art, first through RaMoMa with James Mbuthia at the children’s wing of Kenyatta Hospital, and then in Kibera with Mbuthia and the late Solo 7 at the children’s independent School of Ideas.

Meanwhile, he has been exhibiting in countless group shows, everywhere from Nairobi National Museum, Village Market and Dusit D2 to Talisman Restaurant, Manjano, and Photizo Gallery. He has also exhibited abroad, primarily in Asia in Taiwan. But this is the first time he has taken over the whole top floor of Village Market with more than 30 paintings ranging from Sh50,000 to Sh300,000.

Having the opportunity to watch the development and growth of Njuguna’s artistic style, I have seen fascinating developments in his approach to his landscape paintings. Initially, he, like so many young painters, created works that he thought might have a market, such as boats, particularly dhows that tourists frequenting the Coast, tend to like taking home as reminders of the beauty they encountered in Kenya.

In the process, he developed techniques in detailed drawing and in blending compatible colors such as can be seen in his current shows. What makes his progression of interest to me is his finally coming around to painting the beauty of his own regional territory.

This show reveals far more interest in local scenes which technically are known as peri-urban areas. These are transitional regions which are quasi-rural but still closely linked to urban Nairobi through transit systems that are ever-thriving with energy, dynamism and bustling business.

In fact, Njuguna’s scenes just on the outskirts of his hometown, Ruaka, look vaguely familiar. Yet Njoroge transforms images that might otherwise seem mundane and ordinary by highlighting quirky details with dashes of bright colors that make his canvases come to life.

“I paint mainly in acrylics, but overlay my paintings with a light layer of oil,” says Njoroge who adds the oils enhance to the sheen and sparkle of his color schemes.

He still fantasizes about boats at the Coast, and indeed, he boasts that one of his dhows just got sold to Americans who are said to a whole collection of global boats back home.

But the charm of this exhibition is his bringing his talents to neighborhoods that he knows best. It’s true, he is hardly the first local artist to paint matatus and village markets, lines of laundry and country bus stops. But his blending of colors is distinctive, and especially his skies are exceptional. They have a hint of Van Gogh’s blue hues that draw you into his scenes and allow you to appreciate the richness of his green trees, the redness of his ochre soils, and durability of old matatus heaped with excess baggage. These are familiar images of Kenya today, including lots of busy working people enjoying the brightness of the day.

 

NYANGA'S WORLD PREMIERE AT KENYA NATIONAL THEATRE

            KENYAN OPERA HAS WORLD PREMIERE AT NATIONAL THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published 22 October 2021)

Opera is a genre of theatre that few Kenyans know much about.

It’s primarily a European thing where a story gets told on stage with songs, fabulous costuming and elaborate sets. Yet it’s different from musical theatre because practically all the storylines are sung, accompanied by a full orchestra and chorus that tend to be quite magnificent and expensive as well.

But as of last night, opera was no longer something alien to Kenyans. Thanks to Rhoda Ondeng-Wilhelmsen there was a world premiere yesterday of ‘Nyanga: Runaway Grandmother’ at Kenya National Theatre which will be restaged tonight and through the weekend.

Ms Ondeng-Wilhelmsen is a professional opera singer who has performed widely in Europe but who always felt compelled to introduce her favorite art form to her fellow Kenyans.

“So I wrote the story of my grandmother Nyanga with the intent of seeing Kenya’s first opera having its world premiere right here on the Kenya National Theatre stage,” says Rhoda who has a cameo role playing an elderly Nyanga at the opening and closing of the opera. “My performance ‘bookends’ the production,” she tells Weekender as she dashes off to the show’s first full rehearsal several days before last night’s dazzling opening.

‘Nyanga’ had its world premiere last night, complete with a 40-person chorus, 38-person professional orchestra, children’s choir from Kibera, and 10-person dance troupe, all of whom are Kenyan. The three exceptions were baritones Katumba Ben from Uganda and Lief Jone Olberg from Norway and UK soprano Rebekah Dawn, the latter two playing missionaries who introduce Nyanga to Christianity.

However, ‘Nyanga’ isn’t Kenya’s first opera. That distinction goes to ‘Ondieki, the Fisherman’ says Rhoda who was no less determined to bring her grandmother’s story to the Kenyan stage, complete with all the grandeur, beauty, and professionalism that she had seen in every opera she’d attended or performed in overseas.

Having staged and directed a preview performance of ‘Nyanga’ at her home late last year, Rhoda left stage directing this time round to Julisa Rowe, musical directing to conductor Levy Wataka, vocal instructing to Ciru James, and executive production to Michael James who also re-arranged the original music and libretto by Francis Chandler.

“The transformation of ‘Nyanga’ between then and now is enormous,” says James who keeps a low profile, but has been instrumental in seeing that the cast, chorus, and orchestra were auditioned and expanded effectively. At its core, the opera is about that transitional moment when Christian missionaries arrived on the scene and locals either resisted or embraced their education, religion, and radically new way of living.

Nyanga was Rhoda’s grandmother in real life and the ‘runaway’ who made the radical choice to embrace the new religion with its promise of everlasting life in Jesus Christ. “Basically, Nyanga missed her mother terribly, and thought the promise of immortality would enable her to meet her mother again,” says James.

For Rhoda, Nyanga was a courageous woman and pioneer whose choices led to generations of women in her family getting educated, unlike many women and girls in the Kenyan countryside.

The opera itself is a marvelous love story as well as a major theatrical feat. Why? Because we’re seeing the masterful merging of musical elements, the full orchestra and all those marvelous voices, (especially the principles (Lyndie Shinyega as Nyanga, Caleb Wachira as Joel, and Anthony Mwangi as Nyanga’s father and village’s wise medicine man), all of whom are double-cast.

Then there were those simple set designs that made the most of rustic digital village backdrops. There were the scene changes that were practically seamless, including the contrasting use of both traditional and modern instruments, and the beautiful expression of Nyanga’s bustling pre-colonial village life.

Nyanga’s father was the prophetic voice who foresaw the coming of change to their lives. He initially wasn’t prepared for his daughter ‘running away’ with these renegade Christians. But when she and her mission boyfriend Joel come back to ask for her father’s blessing, the wise man accommodates the inevitable.

Clearly, Ondeng-Wilhelmsen is proud of her grandmother for her courageous independence and determination to move forward with her life. Whether Nyanga’s motivation was mainly to see her mother in the afterlife or her love for Joel or love of Jesus Christ, her fateful decision is the reason Rhoda is the woman she is today. The opera is her means of commemorating her grandmother’s courage. It’s also her gift to Kenya, opening up a whole new cultural genre for Kenyans to appreciate and enjoy.

KOBO ARTISTS COLLABORATE

KOBO ARTISTS COLLABORATE WITH EMERGING TALENTS

                                                                                              Onyis Martin

                             By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 14 October 2021)

David Thuku describes Kobo Trust as ‘not a gallery or an artists’ collective, but a space where interesting young artists are welcome to come and collaborate with us.”

The ‘us’ includes established artists like Thuku, Onyis Martin, Paul Njihia, Nadia Wamunyu, Lemek Sompoika, and Deng Chol who have been based at Kobo Trust for donkey’s years.  The ‘interesting young artists’ with whom they have been collaborating in recent times include Onesmus Okamar, Taabu Munyoki, Timothy Ochola, Rasto Cyprian, and ‘guest artist’ Sheila Bayley who was invited to take part in the Open Studio and group Exhibition currently running in the Trust’s vast assembly hall.

                                                                                                Onesmus Okamar

All eleven artists have one or more of their latest creations in the hall until early next month. And while the ‘open studio’ idea was only a day-long event, the hall is just a few steps away from the artists’ studios where you’ll find more artistic works in progress. For what is clear about Kobo artists is that their creativity is an ongoing flow of energy and non-stop ideas.

In the exhibition hall, it’s Onesmus’s painted ladies that greet you in the foyer. Wrapped in colorful cloaks, blankets, and scarves, these sweet-looking sisters are, according to the title, “Solving [problems] together’’. All of Onesmus’ young women look like feminists in the making, girls likely to stick together through thick and thin.

Inside the hall, each artist has their own space where they reveal their contrasting characters. They all may be painters, but each have his or her individual style, unique subject of focus, medium of expression, and media mix.

                                                                                           Deng Chol

For instance, Njihia fills one exquisite oil painting with faces of young school boys. They’re children packed together in a single clan, filled with limitless energy and apparent enthusiasm for moving as quickly as they can.

Children are also featured in the paintings by Cyprian Rasto, a gifted young artist who found his way to Kobo while still in secondary school.

Adults are also interrogated in many of the remaining works. Their forms are scattered all over the hall, often as familiar images that have been re-imagined in fresh, new forms. Possibly the freshest is the cheeky painting of an ‘African Astronaut’ by Kobo newcomer, Timothy Ochola. In contrast, Thuku’s three figures remind us of beings he’d introduced in earlier shows, only now they are in new circumstances. They’re having to cope with COVID protocols and the issue of masks.

                                                                                                Paul Njihia

Onyis Martin also modifies images of men who have previously served as his iconic visual storytellers. Now he’s more focused on faces and flashy suits, as if he’s embarking on a new visual chapter in his storytelling strategy.

Lemek Sompoika still has his one-man exhibition of mainly abstract artworks at Red Hill Gallery. But the one figurative painting in that show sparked so much attention, it inspired Lemok to create more agile Maasai morans, each leaping at Kobo to phenomenal aerial heights.

Meanwhile, Nadia’s focus is naturally more on women than men. But she has modified her black and white nudes, re-shaping them into intriguingly angular shapes and lines that rouse more curiosity than self-consciousness. No longer can they be seen as nudes. Instead, they feel semi-abstract and startling for their newness and their suggestion that Nadia is also on a new track of artistic discovery.

                                                                                                Rasto 

Abstract art also finds a home at Kobo, first and foremost in the artworks of the Sudan-born painter Deng Chol. He creates colorful pieces that appear to be complex puzzles of intersecting lines and hot wires that seem to have special powers of their own.

Two other semi-abstract artists in the show are Taabu Munyoki who works closely with Thuku, experimenting with paper-cuts as well as pen and ink, and guest artist Sheila Bayley whose dense line drawings create intense focal points that keep one wondering: what’s inside these hot spots of grid-like designs? Are the doodles or high-rise living spaces? It’s interesting works either way.

Taabu was a Kenyatta University fine arts graduate when she was drawn to work with Thuku whose experimental approach to art had a special appeal for her. It differed greatly from what she’d been taught at KU and she appreciated that.

                                                                                            Nadia Wamunya

That experimental edge of Thuku pops up in a second phase of his presence in the Kobo show. This time he’s trying out a new cut-paper technique that he’s shy to talk about. He simply says he’s still working out how to create negative space in his art. So his experimental alchemy carries on.

                                                                                              David Thuku

 

 

LIQUID ARTS PRESENT A SINGLE MOM IN FIGHT MODE

 A SINGLE MOM IN FIGHT MODE

                                                        Peter Tosh, founder, director of Liquid Arts Productions

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

In Liquid arts’ latest production, Barua, the playwright Kelvin Manda sets out to do a noble thing. It is to present a sympathetic story about the plight of the single mother. And yet, on Saturday night I couldn’t help feeling Barua had backfired since I have rarely seen a more unsympathetic single mom than Vivian Nyawira’s presentation of this sassy young former party girl, Sally.

In the opening moments of the play, we meet Sally lambasting her House Help Indiza (Kui Githuku) who, for me, was the most sympathetic and sweet spirited house help that one would want to have taking care of your baby. Sally shows no appreciation her surrogate’s efforts during her absence to give the child all she needs. Instead, she ignores the child, goes for a drink and continues insulting her maid.

We never learn much about Sally in the play except that she has friends who, like her, love to dance and party. So when they all arrive, Sally quickly swings into her frivolous party mode. That’s until maid and baby appear. Then we see Sally swing back into her abusive mode. She throws out everyone except two friends, Grace (Sandra Ndindo) and Abu (Felix Peter), who lament the loss of their party buddy. Sally meanwhile doesn’t go near her kid. It seems the sight of the maid and the child triggers an inner rage that explodes volcanically, spontaneously.

Manda apparently wanted to throw in some comic relief at this point, so he creates a buffoon in the form of Speedy (Dadon Gakengo), the security guard who has delusions of being an actual cop. In a sense, he parodies Kenya’s local ‘kanjos’ (City Council cops) who rough the public up for nothing other than to asset their power and squeeze blood money from those who can least afford.

Speedy feels like a big distraction in the play. He’s a nuisance, but at the same time, when he generates a fight scene with Sally’s boss, Robert (Majestic Steve) who had been persuaded by Sally’s coworker Maureen (Mary Muthee), to come and meet the newborn, one can see why the boss wants to clobber the foolish security guard.

Sally isn’t home when the Boss and Maureen arrive but when it finally dawns on them that Sally’s not around, they leave.

The one other character who grabs our attention and gives us something more substantial than party scenes and men behaving like scrappy little boys, is French (Stephen Mwangi) who is the actual ‘disappeared dad’ who has returned to see Sally and the little girl that they made.

French is the one person, other than Indiza, who seems to really care about the kid. Indiza is clearly dedicated, but the arrival of this guy is slightly mysterious. Where has he come from? Why did he disappear? How does he dare show his face after leaving sally alone?

None of these questions get answered. But what he does tell Speedy (who wasn’t listening) is a graphic replay of that fateful night when he and Sally conceived the child. He doesn’t make excuses, although he admits he only stayed in town two weeks. That was all the time he had with Sally, who when she arrives back home, tells him, even before he can say a word, to get out of her house.

What happens next is the high point of the play. It’s when we finally see Sally come out with her true feelings, her emotional mix of anger, loneliness, alienation, and utter disappointment that he’d vanished when she most needed him. It is the only time I felt Sally honestly expresses her pain and the panic she genuinely feels about being a single mother.  

She literally spits out her hostile questions at him as if they were flaming hot spears: where were you when I needed you, when I was laughed at on campus, when I had to weather all the insults alone? She doesn’t give him time to answer since she already knows he has no response. Sadly, she has already resigned herself to being alone and a single mother. The problem is she isn’t handling it well.

It’s only at the end of the play when the ‘lost baby’ is found in the arms of Indiza, that we see a speck of Sally’s maternal interest in her kid. Otherwise, Sally’s character is raw, rude, and full of rage. Which could be the truth of what many pregnant women feel.   

 

 

 

 

ABUSHARIAA SOLO SHOW AT TRIBAL ART IS DELICIOUS

ABUSHARIAA AT TRIBAL GALLERY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 10.10.21)

Ahmed Abushariaa is one of three Sudanese artists currently exhibiting their art around the town. Salah Elmur’s art is one of eight contemporary East African artists on show at Red Hill Gallery, and Miska Mohammed is having her first solo exhibition at Circle Art Gallery.

All three are graduates of Sudan University’s illustrious School of Fine and Applied Arts, as are several other brilliant Sudanese artists who have shared their art in Nairobi, including Eltayeb Dawelbait, Rashid Diab, and Yassir Ali among others.

Like Miska, Abushariaa is also having a solo exhibition, only his is at Tribal Gallery in Loresho, where he has had several solo shows before, most recently in early 2020 shortly before COVID-19 came crashing in on Kenya and the rest of the world.

Filling all the walls of the many rooms and corridors of Tribal Gallery, Abushariaa tells BDLife that this exhibition is different from his previous ones which tended to focus on a specific theme. But in this case, his memories have taken him to many parts of his early life when he was still living in northern Sudan.

One series he entitles ‘Celebrations,’ which highlight joyful memories he recalls of harvest times and weddings, happy times generally. In others he pays homage to ancient civilizations that left pyramids and symbolic hieroglyphs not far from his home. And in one of his most spectacular paintings, he paints his hometown of Eltakala Abbashar, as he remembers seeing it for the first time as a child, having climbed up to the top of his house and onto the roof to get what he calls an ‘aerial view’ of his town.

This is the one large painting that includes both watercolors, inks, and acrylic paints. It’s a feat only achieved by stretching his canvas and then covering it with watercolor paper since he says watercolors do not work well with canvas. But the combination works beautifully, especially as he’s a master of inks and watercolors. Plus, his aerial perspective enables us to see into the far distance of his city, including the river Nile flowing straight across the town.

Not all his paintings are based on his memories. For instance, his ‘Revolution’ series pays homage to the women who he says led the marches against the former president Omar el-Bashir which ultimately resulted in his fall from power and the hopeful ushering in of a new day. The four-part series devoted to women leaders are all painted is a regal purple hue.

One of the elders of the Revolution, Mohamed Matar is also painted in his favorite sky-blue. And another set of four is painted in the color of the soil of another city he holds dear, Omdurman.

But Abushariaa’s show is not short on multi-colors, particularly the vivid watercolors that he has experimented with virtually all his artistic life.  “In Sudan, we didn’t have acrylics or a wide variety of colors in those times, so I used to experiment producing colors using everything from hibiscus, tobacco, and tea to coffee, saffron, and smoky ash.” Knowing from an early age that he didn’t want to do anything other than fine art, he majored in Oriental Decoration and Arabic Calligraphy at university.

It was after university that he had the good fortune to meet a Mennonite couple who saw the paintings he created while working as a graphic designer and using printer’s ink to draw on leftover scraps of paper considered trash by his employer. The couple wanted to buy everything he’d produced but as he had no idea how to value his art, he gave it all away.

“Upon their return from the US, they brought me a huge box of art materials,” he says. Their gifts constituted a turning point in his life since they brought him paints, brushes, and the acrylics he had never used before.

Today, Abushariaa has exhibited his art all over the world, and he says one reason he has had these opportunities is because he aims to create paintings that make people glad to be in a room with his art.

“I love to create paintings that make people happy,” he says with a smile. He admits that wasn’t easy for him to do during the pandemic, the news about which was invariably depressing.

“So early on, I decided to turn off my TV, and focus on my art. I relied on my memories as my source of inspiration. Otherwise, I couldn’t handle the stress,” he adds.

At Tribal Gallery, Abushariaa’s art runs from USD650 up to USD12,000.

 

 

 

 

 

SIX WOMEN STORYTELLERS STAR IN THE NAIROBI EDITION OF THEATRE FOR ONE

                  SIX WOMEN STORYTELLERS TELL BOLD, BRAZEN TALES

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Theatre for One: We are Here (Nairobi Edition) is a fresh, ingenious and intimate approach to theatre that I was fortunate to experience for two nights last week. On both evenings, I experienced three different performances, one for each of the six Kenyan women selected to be involved in this experimental approach to theatre which previously has been staged all over the world. The six included Sitawa Namwalie, Mumbi Kaigwa, Aleya Kassam, Anne Moraa, Laura Ekumbo, and Mercy Mutisya.

Conceived twenty years ago by an American thespian, Christine Jones, Theatre for One is all about the one-on-one experience of the performer and their audience of one. Jones apparently felt the theatre experience is something to be shared intimately. Its performative style is interactive in that the audience of o-e is encouraged to engage with the actor, which to me sounds a bit risky. But that element of spontaneity is meant to be part of this experimental concept of theatre. It’s worked so well in the past that the ‘Nairobi edition’ was coproduced by New York University’s Art Centre in Abu Dhabi and Octopus Theatricals of New York.

In the past, Theatre for One was a live, face-to-face experience. But the coronavirus compelled the coproducers to take their shows online.

It worked for me first when Aleya Kassam performed ‘The Interview’ which she also wrote. She is in a bathroom setting since she says the room makes her feel closer to the sea. And since she says she is a jen (a kind of mermaid), this makes sense. She is in the process of ‘interviewing’ for a replacement of her dearest friend whom she recently lost. Her persona is alluring, but rather spooky and unsettling. That also makes sense since strange superstitions have been spun for centuries by seafaring sailors who got lured by these mysterious water-women, and then lost once they’ve fallen under their spell. Aleya’s gen has that alluring style that can easily entice someone to believe her sweet story and follow her back into the sea.

                                                   Three of the six: Aleya Kassam, Laura Ekumbo, Anne Moraa

‘The Interview’, like all the performances, was only about ten minutes long. But that was sufficient for these six professional women actors to draw you totally into their unusual tales.

The one story that left me wanting more was Sitawa Namwalie’s ‘Killer Cop lives fast life’. All six storyteller had an edgy feminist flare to their performance, but this one is quite scandalous. Sitawa plays an undercover cop who is shameless about her having shot dead two men. To her, they deserved whatever she gave, but the media isn’t telling her side of the story. We meet her after she’d been reading headlines that misconstrue her actions, and she is not pleased about that. At the same time, she’s delighted that her deeds have triggered the military to be called up to search for her, a ‘mankiller’. She’s amused that she is seen as a threat to national security!

Sitawa gave us enough of her story to whet our appetites. But then, her time is up, and we are left panting for more from this fiercely iconoclastic ex-cop.

Then a few minutes later, Laura Ekumba casually presented a chatty script entitled ‘Aging’. She is getting set to attend her own birthday party, but she’s feeling queasy about turning 26. She claims it’s because she hasn’t picked the perfect song for the day. But really, we get the feeling she’s more concerned about time passing her by. She keeps a journal in which she remembers poignant experiences from the ages of three up until now, suggesting that time is weighing on her thought, as if she is on the verge of getting old. Yet the beauty of her performance is in her almost childlike innocence. At 26, she’s still young enough to care about a song and a dress. One feels her world is just opening up and she is ready for it.

On night two, I experienced my first glitch and ended up missing Mercy Mutisya’s story. It made me sad, but also determined not to miss the final two: ‘The Beanie’ by Mumbi Kaigwa and ‘Cucu’ by Anne Moraa. Again, they portrayed women who were startling for their strength of character, and even more startling because both break out of conventional womanly molds and burst out with defiant force.

In Mumbi’s case, her character is a filmmaker whose technicians mess up a critical moment in a shoot. Her reaction is emotional, even violent in her outrage expressed towards her crew. She is forced to confront the impact of her unchecked emotions which come off as cruel and unkind. She has broken free from a soft, comforting, maternal role, but landed in a mudslinging, almost macho style of violence. Thankfully, she begins at the end to become more self-aware.

In Anne’s case, it’s her grandmother that apparently has been happily married for 40 years. But then, when she is out chopping wood, her husband comes and kicks her violently. Instead of absorbing the pain and keeping quiet, she takes her ax and chops off his hand. Amazingly, the story ends as if “they lived happily ever after’.

These are new women whose characters we have rarely seen before. And they are awesome, unsettling, bold, and brazen in their fearlessness. We expect to see more of them soon.

HELLMUTH: A COLLECTOR WITH A PASSION FOR EAST AFRICAN ART

                    A COLLECTOR WITH A PASSION FOR EAST AFRICAN ART

 

                                       Hellmuth Rossler outside Red Hill Gallery with painting by Samuel Githinji

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (Posted October 5, 2021)

As a trained biochemist and pharmacist, Hellmuth Rossler had lived and worked all over Africa in the health care sector for more than 35 years. But he didn’t become a serious collector of contemporary African art until the mid-1990s when he met Gallery Watatu’s Ruth Schaffner.

“I’d collected a bit of local art as a youth in Germany, but I’d never thought of [East African] art as anything other than souvenir curios,” Hellmuth tells BDLife

“I didn’t know that such a thing as contemporary African art existed in Kenya until I met Ruth who showed me the works of amazing young artists like Meek Gichugu, Sane Wadu and others,” he adds.

                                                                                       Peterson Kamwathi

“It was like a revelation to him,” says his Dutch wife Erica who shares her husband’s passion for African art. “But ar\\with the real eye for art,” she adds.

Ruth was instrumental in opening Hellmuth’s eyes to the art of everyone from Jak Katarikawe, Joel Oswaggo, and Wanyu Brush to Ancent Soi, Zach Mbuno, and others

But just across the street from Ruth was Mahindra Shah’s Sarang Gallery, which wasn’t exactly a rival to Ruth. But definitely, when artists brought her their art, and she rejected it for any number of reasons, they often crossed the street and sold their paintings to Shah who proved to be a life-saver to many young artists who were struggling to make ends meet.

“Mahindra had an amazing collection of artworks,” recalls Hellmuth who got his start buying and collecting East African art on Standard Street at both Watatu and Sarang. Many of Ruth’s favored artists also sold their works to Shah, But there were others, including refugee artists from Congo, Sudan, Uganda, and South Africa who Hellmuth found at Sarang.

One young Sudanese artist whose works he especially liked was Ahmed Abusharia, who at the time was working as an artist-in-residence at Paa ya Paa Art Centre with Elimo Njau. The recent graduate of Sudan University’s College of Fine and Applied Art, Abusharia had only arrived in Nairobi in 1996. But he placed a lot of his art at Sarang where Hellmuth bought much of it.

Having just recently done an inventory of the artworks, including both paintings and sculptures, in his collection, Hellmuth easily identified Abusharia as the most well represented artist in his treasure trove of works. He owns around 60 of his paintings. And while the works themselves are beautiful, Hellmuth also finds it fascinating to see the way Abusharia’s art has evolved and developed over time.

                                                                                         Michael Musyoka

But as much as he appreciates the Kampala-based Abusharia, the artist is not in Red Hill’s current group exhibition entitled ‘A Glimpse of a Collection of Contemporary East African Art.”

The show is definitely only a glimpse of Hellmuth’s vast collection (which includes over 500 works). It only features eight artists out of the scores whose works he’s assembled over the years. The eight are Peterson Kamwathi, Shabu Mwangi, Justus Kyalo, Beatrice Wanjiku, Michael Musyoka, Dennis Muraguri, the Zambian sculptor Thom Phiri, and another Sudanese artist, Salah Elmur. But even if there are only eight, and even if none are for sale, it is still worth seeing these few since they are among East Africa’s leading professional artists.

When Hellmuth began collecting, he was still working in health care, and he wasn’t yet living in Kenya. That would only come in 2010 after he and Erica retired, to start up their own Art Gallery. “So initially, we sent all the art back to Germany. But once we moved to Kenya, we brought most of it back to Red Hill,” says Hellmuth. In part, he says this is because he feels it’s important for Kenyan art to remain in the country.

                                                                                       Kamwathi Peterson

 Explaining that his primary incentive for collecting East African art in the first place was his passion for it, Hellmuth insists he never intended to buy art for its investment potential or resale value, although he knows many people see it as in that light.

He is fully aware his collection is worth far more today than what he originally paid it. But for him, it’s the passion for the paintings that gives him the greatest pleasure.

“I think I will be periodically giving more ‘glimpses’ of my collection in the future, although I don’t intend to sell any of it,” he says, noting that his gallery is not a full-time commercial venture.

“An exhibition [like Glimpses] is more about raising people’s awareness of the reality and beauty of contemporary East African art,” Hellmuth says.