JEAN ROUCH, FRENCH SCHOLAR, FILMMAKER AND CONTROVERSIAL FOUNDER OF CINEMA VERITE MOVEMENT

CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS OF JEAN ROUCH, CONTROVERSIAL FRENCH FILMMAKER & ANTHROPOLOGIST

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted april 26, 2017)

Two events have been scheduled this week at Alliance Francaise to commemorate the centenary since the birth of the renowned French filmmaker and anthropologist, Jean Rouch.

Controversial in his lifetime for filming traditional cultural rituals and ceremonies of indigenous Africans, mainly from Francophone West Africa, Rouch was a pioneer and trailblazer who is now considered a man ahead of his time. For while some colonial powers were busy smashing indigenous African cultures, calling them bestial, heathen and primitive, only to be “civilized” by their being made over into Christians, Rouch recognized the value of African culture including their values, practices, cosmologies and traditions.

Rouch was considered radical in his time. Nonetheless, he spearheaded a whole cinematic movement that took the Western world by storm. Called ‘cinema verite’, his style of filmmaking may be seen as an early form of ‘reality programming’. However, unlike reality TV, Rouch wanted to understand African peoples within their own cultural context. And because he was an academic, a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer as well as a filmmaker, his cinema was meant to serve as a scholarly form of research. He aimed to document aspects of a people’s culture which he recognized as dynamic, ever-changing and ephemeral.

The Rouch film that was shown this past Wednesday at Alliance Francaise is one of the Frenchman’s most controversial. Entitled ‘The Mad Masters’ (Les Maitres Fous’), the film documents a specific ceremony practiced by a cult from Ghana known as the Hauke. Rouch managed to gain the trust of the Hauke to such an extent that he was able to film cult followers who were put into a trance-like state where they became “possessed” by the spirits of their colonial officers.

That same night, Rouch’s film was contrasted with a contemporary ethnographic documentary entitled ‘Lukumbe’ (or ‘Knife’ in Bukusu) made by the Kenyan filmmaker, Dennis Machio. Subsequently, there was a discussion between Machio and the Deputy Director of the French Institutefor Research on Africa, Chloe Josse Durand. They explored the similarities and differences between ethnographic films, one by Rouch from the 20^th century, the other by Machio from the 21^st century.

Tonight, Rouch’s centenary celebrations will extend into a musical realm when two musicians from Mozambique will perform a concert called ‘A Million Things’. Its starting point the cinematic work of Rouch who died in 2004 in Niger, having spent more than 60 years making films in Africa.

  

ANTHONY OKELLO 'S ARTIST TALK ROUSES DEBATE AMONG ARTISTS

ARTIST TALK STIMULATES DEBATE AMONG FELLOW ARTISTS

BY margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 24, 2017)

Preceding the opening of his solo exhibition this coming Saturday (29^th April) at One Off Gallery entitled ‘Black Tie’, Anthony Okello gave an ‘Artist Talk’ organized by The Art Space at Kuona Trust on Monday afternoon.

Okello is an award-winning artist who’s been painting for the last twenty plus years. A graduate of the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art in the 1990s, he recalled that he began by majoring in painting at BIFA but then switched to graphic design. It was a shift he says he didn’t regret.

“I’d always loved to draw, which was good since we had to make sketches upon sketches while in the process of completing [design] projects,” says Okello. “But it was during that course, that I began to really appreciate color which was very important,” he adds.

Okello was among the first group of Kenyan artists to take part in a Bonham’s African Art Auction in London several years back. It was an occasion in ehivh the revenues from the auction went not to the artists but to the African Art Trust, a fund set up to assist fledgling regional art organizations, started by the British art collector Robert Devereux.

Out of the half dozen Kenyans whose art sold at that auction, it was Okello’s that sold for the highest price.

But on Monday, Okello confessed what has given him the most satisfaction as an artist is not the amount of money his artwork has sold for, but the actual process of creating the art itself.

He recalled that probably his finest work had taken him more than five years to create. It was work that he’d produced while giving not a thought to the money it might generate. Instead, he’d created his African mythology series while he “had fire in [his] head’.

The series itself consisted of a series of six monumental paintings, all but one of which had sold and been sent abroad. The sixth one he actually donated to the Nairobi National Museum where it hangs conspicuously today in the Museum’s most prominent staircase.

At least one of those six works had been so massive that it covered all of the walls in the small studio he was renting at the time. He recalled the canvas had stretched possibly seven feet by eight feet and hung from the ceiling right down to the floor. “I used to paint nonstop for three days at a time,” Okello recalled nostalgically.

Noting that some artists like to emphasize how much they suffer as they struggle to sustain themselves, Okello suggested that no suffering could compare to the sort of satisfaction an artist can feel creating work that expresses what he really wants to say.

But he admitted he hadn’t always felt that way. “While I was based at the [Nairobi National] Museum [with Kuona Trust], I used to keep a list of my ‘clients’, meaning the people who used to buy my art. But now I don’t call people ‘clients’ and I don’t keep a list,” he added. Nonetheless, Okello said he’d be forever grateful to all those tourists who’d come to the Museum and bought his art.

The ‘Talk’ on Monday mainly took the form of a question and answer session led by The Art Space’s Wambui Collymore who asked Okello a series of probing questions.

But there were also quite a number of local artists on hand who were eager to ask Okello questions. These resulted in a rousing debate over everything from the effect of money on an artist’s creativity to debate over the role of art organizations like Kuona Trust or the Go Down or other commercial galleries in the qualitative development of an artist’s creativity and career.

Okello was full of praise for the quality of art coming out of Kenyan artists currently. There was no comparison, he said, between what artists were doing even five years ago and what they’re producing now.

Wambui wanted to know Okello’s opinion on where the artists’ [community] should go from here? “What’s the next step?” she asked several times.

The question never quite got answered although at least one artist, Michael Soi, said he felt the art scene had “stagnated” due to some artists having grown too dependent on donor funding and the directions the donor wanted artists to move in.

It was a debate that couldn’t be exhausted in one sitting. But there was little doubt that the artists on hand were grateful to hear the opinions of older, more seasoned artists like Okello, Soi, Thom Ogonga and Beatrice Wanjiku, all of whom shared ideas that younger artists were mostly eager to hear.

BONIFACE MAINA'S PRE-ELECTION SHOW SATIRIZES KENYAN POLS

BONIFACE EMBODIES ‘TRANSITIONS’ AT NAIROBI GALLERY

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 23, 2017)

Many things make Boniface Maina’s current exhibition at Nairobi Gallery a special event. First off, it’s not incidental that Boni is the first contemporary Kenyan artist under 30 (apart from Peter Elungat) to exhibit in the Gallery’s one hall devoted to contemporary art and to what the Gallery’s curator, Alan Donovan, calls ‘Veterans’ meaning artists  has known since the 1970s.

The fact the show is entitled ‘Transitions’ speaks to this point. It was Alan who decided to start showcasing younger artists who represent what’s happening in the Kenyan art world right now.

It’s that aspect of timeliness and relevance that also makes Boniface’s show important. It’s important in part because his satiric political portraits, painted with pen and ink and ‘accessorized’ with gold leaf, serve to debunk a common myth about Kenyan art. That is that it’s rarely politically edgy; only decorative ‘art for art’s sake’.

His paintings, although they could seem slightly obtuse to some observers, defy that shallow perspective. His artworks are all steeped in political symbolism that’s not simply satirical but often subtly savage and borderline cynical!

At the opening last Sunday, a number of young Kenyans challenged the notion that his art was cynical. On the contrary, they said, it was “realistic”.

For instance, his portrait of the ‘Poster Boy’ reflects a phenomenon happening right now during these pre-election days. These are the times when politicians are paying poor young people to ignore the signs that say ‘No Posters’ and put theirs up anyway.

It’s significant that from the backside view, the ‘Boy’ looks naked. That’s because the nakedness is symbolic not only of the young man’s poverty, but also of his vulnerability, and thus his exploitability.

It’s noticeable that Boni’s paintings are populated by either prospective voters or candidates. Also that the voters are practically all naked while the political candidates are clothed. The aspirants might only be wearing a hat and underpants as in “Mheshimiwa Returns’ or a bright red tie as in “The Serial Contestant II”. But they’re still better dressed than the voters whose favor they are ferociously seeking during this pre-election time.

It’s true that a few candidates have on a suit as in “Kura ya Mheshimiwa” (He’s also got the hat and red tie.) One even has a fur-collared coat. But he’s also the one pol whose face reflects the artist’s actual feelings for this breed of animal. This ‘mheshimiwa’ has the face of a hungry fox, the kind one used to see in a grim fairy tale like ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

What saves Boni’s show from being simply savage and cynical is the streak of humor that runs through every satirical piece. For instance, he lampoons both political parties, as revealed in his ‘Flag Bearer I’ and ‘Flag Bearer II’. They’re both holding inflated balloons not flags. The NASA one wears an astronaut’s suit, while the Jubilee one has a hat concealing his face.

Several paintings are my favorites. One is ‘’Tyranny of Aspirants’ which is his most salient satiric piece on the plastering of posters all over Eastlands. Another is his dancing politician doing ‘The Political Dab’, which most pols are now doing after seeing it performed by the Big Man.

Finally, his “Kings and the Golden Vote” is possibly Boni’s wittiest. The two gold-leaf footprints in the centre of the work are surrounded by outlines of crowns, suggesting every candidate aspires to be a king.

In this regard, ‘Transitions’ isn’t just about Kenyan elections. It seems to be relevant to elections everywhere in the world.

NAOMI'S 'AGLOW' GLASS ART SHOW FILLS ONE OFF GALLERY WITH MAGICAL LIGHT

NAOMI’S GLASS ART LIGHTS UP ONE OFF GALLERY

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 22, 2017)

Naomi van Rampelberg has a remarkable pedigree.

Her mother, Chelenge is a wonderful Kenyan sculptor whose work is full of surrealistic surprises that never fail to amaze and arouse deep esteem. Her Belgian father, Marc is equally inspired although his focus has tended to be more on functional art that he beautifies. His home furnishings are smooth, sleek polished wooden works of art that have the added value of being items that have utility whether in the workplace or in the house.

Yet genetics ultimately can never explain the imaginative grace of this inspired Kenyan artist whose current glass art exhibition at One Off Gallery is fittingly entitled ‘Aglow’. It’s fitting because light plays such an important part in illuminating the delicate detail that Naomi has clearly put into her preparations for this exhibition, the second she has had at One Off in the last two and half years.

Her previous show also had glass art in it. But as it was called ‘Echoes’, so it had reverberated with artistic ideas reflected not only in glass but also in paper collage and exquisitely designed jewelry.

In ‘Aglow’, which closes later this week to make way for the opening of Anthony Okello’s latest works from this Saturday, Naomi concentrates on the one genre, glass art that’s so highly detailed and delicately hand painted that each piece is a precious work of art.

It doesn’t matter if she’s worked on a wine bottle, comely flower vase, glass decanter with matching wine glasses or even a pudgy punch bowl, what counts are the carefully placed and perfectly aligned glass painted dots on every piece. Each one has a magical effect, one that reminds one of the surprise her mother’s sculptures elicit and the impeccable perfection that her father’s smooth polished wooden surfaces showcase.

Nonetheless, it’s her exquisite encasements of light that arouse the most awe-inspiring emotions. To call them ‘lamp shades’ is an inaccurate term although they perform a similar service in that they rule out any direct glare from a humble light bulb. But the effect of her delicately aligned dabbles of color on glass fittings, be they spherical or half-curved, is to set the tone for a whole room to feel the effect of Naomi’s magic.

Her glass ‘fittings’ are one of the most marvelous features of her Aglow show, so one needs to make a dash to One Off this week before Naomi’s show shuts down and her lovely light goes off.

PHOENIX PLAYERS DEAD OR ALIVE?

PHOENIX RISING AGAIN?

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 21, 2017)

Lupito Nyong’o is not the only one to react with sorrow to the alarming set of images posted on Twitter last Wednesday (April 19) by one of Kenya’s leading stage and screen actors, Mugambi Nthige. The images of auctioneers loading up boxes filled with costumes, props and electronic equipment out in front of the Professional Centre went viral on social media following Mugambi’s tweet.

But just as it was easy to assume Mugambi had snapped those shots himself (probably on a smart phone), so it was just as likely the well-known actor was sharing a fact when he added “Phoenix Players has shut down.”

In reality, it was Tim King’oo, Phoenix’s acting Stage Manager, not Mugambi, who had taken those shots and posted them on the What’s App site ‘Phoenix Rising.’ “Mugambi must have lifted them from there,” notes another Phoenix stalwart, its acting Administrative officer, Brenda Muthoni, who’s been working for the Players since 2015.

“It’s understandable, looking at those images, to assume as Mugambi did, that Phoenix Players was finished, but it’s not,” Muthoni says.

She concedes the current arrears owed to their landlord, APSEA (short for Association of Professional Societies of East Africa) which owns Professional Centre, is a whopping Sh3.8 million. What’s more, that sum doesn’t include the bill sent from Dews Traders auctioneers for services rendered last Wednesday amounting to another Sh120,495.

But neither Muthoni nor King’oo nor the newly-constituted Phoenix Board are prepared to concede the demise of Phoenix. Ironically, neither are a myriad of well-wishers who have come out on social media suggesting something had to be done to save the Players.

“Yet where were all those well-wishers when we needed them,” asks Anita Ngugi, Phoenix’s previous marketing manager. “We had even hoped Lupita would come to see a show at Phoenix when she came to Kenya some time ago,” Anita adds, recalling as Lupita had tweeted, her [award-winning] career had actually begun with her acting with Phoenix Players

Yet just as Mugambi noted in his initial tweet, Phoenix has gone through many years of woe. Indeed, since its inception in 1982, when the late James Falkland and Peri Bhakoo registered Phoenix Players Ltd., the company has struggled. Annual membership combined with ticket sales had previously sustained repertory theatre, including the Players’ predecessor, Donovan Maule Theatre. But as membership numbers and corporate support dwindled, and the Government didn’t see the economic value of Kenya’s creative economy, times got even tougher.

Yet according to Muthoni, further complications compounded Phoenix’s recent woes. She and others have claimed the Players’ current problems are also due to major “mismanagement issues.” Stories of actors and directors not getting paid are rife. So are stories of actors announcing they’d never work at Phoenix again unless the management changed.

Ironically, David Opondoe, who was General Manager at the time, says he quit Phoenix two years back. Yet he admits he’s still the sole signatory of the Players’ Barclays Bank account.

“We don’t even know how much is in that account,” says Muthoni. Apparently, it is only the previous Board which appointed Opondoe back in 2013, that can change the signatory. Yet according to Opondoe, that Board no longer exists. The previous board chairman, Nani Njoroge had officially resigned as did other board members, including Peter Nduati, Lorna Irungu, Mugambi Nandi and Engineer Kingangi.

With no Board of Directors, no General Manager and no access to the Players’ bank account, it was not a surprise to receive an eviction letter from APSEA in November 2016.

“I took the initiative to email the previous board and informed them about the [eviction] letter,” says Muthoni who got a scathing phone call from Opondoe who she hadn’t seen or heard from in over a year.

But from then on, Tim King’oo and Muthoni have been holding meetings with thespians who’ve previously been affiliated with Phoenix and who sincerely want to see the Theatre company survive.

According to Phoenix Players’ Articles of Association, a new board had to be elected by paid-up members. But as all the previous memberships had elapsed, Tim and Muthoni had to recruit new members willing to pay the Sh1000 membership fee. It was those members who subsequently elected a six-person board which is already planning the first fund-raiser production that Mugambi Nthige mentioned in one of his subsequent tweets last week.

“It’s true we’ll have to find a new venue and set a date, but Phoenix Players intends to stage August Wilson’s ‘Gem of the Ocean’, co-directed by Sahil Gada and myself,” says Tim King’oo who’d directed Wilson’s ‘Fences’ a year ago at the Phoenix.

“If the Phoenix is ever going to rise again, it’s got to be now,” adds Martin Githinji, one of the Players’ long-standing supporter and passionate member of Kenya’s theatre community.

DAVID THUKU GETS KEMPINSKI COMMISSION TO CELEBRATE KEMPINSKI'S 120TH ANNIVERSARY

KEMPINSKI CELEBRATES 120^TH ANNIVERSARY FOSTERING LOCAL ART

By margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 19, 2017)

David Thuku wasn’t the only Kenyan artist creating sketches and a three-dimensional model for consideration by the Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel which was getting set to celebrate its 120^th anniversary since the founding father of the luxury hotels, Berthold Kempinski, opened the first family business back in Berlin, Germany in 1897.

But Thuku was the only artist to come up with a design that was both contemporary and conceptually intriguing as well as being colorful and compatible with the elegant front foyer and lobby of the Hotel.

On the one hand, Thuku’s chandelier-like collection of multi-colored square frames might be mistaken for a playful children’s toy since nearly all the 120 frames are interconnected like a child’s game. But at the same time, this intricate assortment of color-coded geometric forms are carefully hung from the Hotel’s high ceiling so that they seem to be cascading down towards the classical marble fountain situated as the very center of the foyer.

Thuku calls his hanging installation ‘Cycles of Light’ which is a title and concept inspired by the Hotel’s anniversary theme, namely ‘Ignite the Night.’ “It’s a theme shared among all 74 Kempinski Hotels, all of which commissioned artwork from a local artist,” says Shikha Nayar, the Nairobi Kempinski’s E-Commerce Manager. She adds that most of the 74 are located in major European cities although a number of newer hotels have come up in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Ironically, she says Kempinski has no hotels on the North American mainland, although they are just about to open one in Havana Cuba!

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As for Africa, the Villa Rosa Kempinski, launched in 2014, is not the first established in the region. “We have two in Kenya, one in Nairobi, the other in Maasai Mara,” says Shikha. “But we also have hotels in Cairo, Kinshasa, Djibouti and Accra.”

On April 8^th at exactly 6:30pm all 74 Kempinski Hotels turned on lights meant symbolically to ‘Ignite the Night’ and illuminate all the artworks created especially for the 120^th anniversary celebration.

“At the same time, the [Nairobi] Hotel switched on the fountain beneath the ‘cycles of light’ which had a dazzling effect,” recalls Thuku who had carefully hung four six-sided mirror cubes at the base of his ‘chandelier’.

“The effect of the flowing fountain water combined with the four ceiling lights that were simultaneously switched on was something special to see,” adds the artist who says he had help on various details from friends his home studio at Brush tu Art.  

(The section below didn't appear in the paper but the rich details that Thuku shared were worth remembering:)

Describing his installation as a collaborative piece, Thuku says he worked with Kempinski technicians who helped him especially with the lighting above the piece. "all four lights were on either side of the piece," he says.

Explains that the spray-painted squares were all made out of wood, three corners of which he used screws and super glue to assemble, Thuku adds that in order to interconnect each piece he'd left that last side open until it was time for the final assemblage of the art.

Having used 12 colors (which meant he painted 10 sets of colored frames), he says he used black and white as well as three shades of blue, two shades of green, two shades of yellow and one of purple, red and pink.

"what I realized after I had decided to use the 12 colors was that the ten sets could symbolize the decades," he adds.

"I also created six different sizes of squares so as to signify growth and development of the enterprise," the artist noted.

But the final challenge for him was figuring out how he was going to install his installation. But with the help of friends Abdul and Lincoln at Brush tu Art, he was able to create metallic rings and a strong set of chains that enabled him to have his sculpture be effectively suspended.

"We were able to suspend it from the ceiling but we ultimately had to wind the metal chain around a sturdy metal pipe that was above the ceiling. that way the whole structure was secure."

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, THE SUPER MUSICAL OF THE YEAR

BY MARGARETTA WA GACHERU (posted  april 19, 2017)

Jesus Christ Superstar is one of the most ambitious musicals ever staged in Nairobi. It was especially so given the way the show’s director Stuart Nash insisted it be set to live (not pre-recorded) music. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score also isn’t easy but Nash was fortunate to find the Kenya National Youth Orchestra up to the challenge. And the Kenya National Theatre the perfect venue for this spectacular Easter holiday event.

There were many other reasons why JCS wasn’t easy to stage. First off, there’s Webber’s unconventional interpretation of the story which might not have been to everybody’s taste. Then there’s the fact that the costuming was contemporary and casual. Only the high priests were decked out in ornamental robes. King Herod was also dressed in a bright golden gown. But again, some may have wondered why Nash cast a woman in that male role. Once you saw how forcefully Mkamzee MwatelaM played Herod’s part, you could understand why this marvelous actress was specially selected for the part.

The fact that Herod’s guards frolicked (as if in a can-can chorus line) with their ‘King’ wearing nothing but a matching gold mini-skirt also might have been unsettling for orthodox or fundamentalist Christian followers.

So to fully appreciate the production, one had to come with a wide open mind, prepared for a show full of surprises. For instances, one might expect a musical to be replete with rich, well-trained voices. Unfortunately, the only truly beautiful voice was Miriam Nyokabi’s who as Mary Magdalene was a joy to listen to.

Dan Aceda playing the title role of Jesus was the one professional singer in the show. However, the musical range required to sing Jesus’ part was immense and slightly beyond Aceda’s. Nonetheless, once he got comfortable on stage (and KNT’s technical team got the sound system right), his character was far more convincing and charismatic than he was on opening night.

It was Mugambi Nthega as Judas who proved that even with an imperfect voice, if one performed with electrifying energy and the acting capacity that Mugambi clearly has, the actor could carry his musical role with the passion, persuasive power and conflicted pain that Judas clearly had.  Indeed, the most emotive moments in the show were when Judas connected with Jesus, especially when he came to kiss the man who’d once been his closest friend.

Both Jesus and Judas knew the kiss signaled a treacherous betrayal. And probably Aceda’s most sensitive scene was when his Jesus was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane sharing his deepest thoughts with God. He was clearly agonized, knowing what torturous times were about to come.

The horror of Jesus’ torture at the hand of Pilate’s soldiers and at the prodding of the Pharisees was graphically portrayed in this production of events leading up to and including the crucifixion.

Ultimately my only problem with JCS was not the cast, crew or orchestra’s performance. It was with Webber’s script which closed with the finality of Jesus’ death and without a hint of redemptive resurrection.

Obviously, this is my problem alone, but I would have loved to see a bit of improvisation on Nash’s part to give us a slightly more joyful ending. After all, some folks see the Easter story as pure fiction anyway. But Nash is a professional who had to be true to the playwright’s script which, in fact remained true to the scriptural text. Only that one couldn’t tell in the end if Jesus was merely a man or the son of God.