THE ART OF
THE ‘CONTROLLED ACCIDENT’
By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 18 January 2017)
She’s the
grand dame of contemporary Kenyan art, the co-founder (with the late Robin
Anderson and David Hart) of the acclaimed (now defunct) Gallery Watatu, and
without doubt, she’s the most long-standing Kenyan-American painter around,
having arrived in Kenya shortly before the country gained Independence in 1963.
Yony Waite’s
‘Controlled Accidents’ exhibition that opened recently (January 18th)
at Polka Dot Gallery in Karen confirmed that this illustrious artist is still
going strong. So much so that not all her artworks (most of which were created
in the last year) can actually fit into the Polka Dot, one of Nairobi’s sweetest
new art galleries.
But
gallerist Lara Ray says that’s no problem since she’ll simply rotate some of
Yony’s art so the show will expose most of her newest works before the
exhibition ends 15th February.
Fortunately,
what does fit in (and outside) the gallery are Yony’s panoramic paintings,
views of Nairobi National Park as seen from the front porch of her
makuti-roofed cottage out at her family’s Athi River ranch.
One artwork
that definitely doesn’t fit inside the gallery is a comfy sofa given to her by
a friend after a fluke fire in 2013 destroyed her first Athi cottage and studio
gallery which had been filled with an exquisite array of paintings practically
all of which were consumed in the fire.
Yony’s
treated the sofa (including the cushions) as if it were a canvas on which she’s
painted a beautiful reclining nude!
It’s not the
first time that she’s painted furniture. In her last two exhibitions, (one at
Nairobi National Museum in 2015, the other the following year at One Off
Gallery) it was the furniture that most emphatically revealed Yony as the
inspired artist who can paint, print or draw on any medium, be it paper,
canvas, upholstery or wood.
At the Polka
Dot, one will also see the woman’s versatility since her subjects range from
wildebeests, rhino, zebra and a bull branded with a ‘campaign for nuclear
disarmament’ logo to Lamu street scenes and intricate Swahili designs to North
American trees and Nairobi street children. What’s more, her work comes in all
sizes and shapes so that one can’t help being in awe of this woman who doesn’t
simply paint, draw and print beautiful images.
She’s also
got a deep-seated political sensibility, especially as it pertains to
environmental concerns. One can see it in her branded bull. It’s also apparent in
the landscape paintings that she symbolically shredded, but then reassembled by
bonding the pieces back together with gold-leaf paint.
Shredding
her art suggests that she meant to mimic what’s currently being done to destroy
Mother Earth for short-sighted material gain. But then, I imagine the
reassembling of her work is also meant to imply there still might be a shred of
hope that the planet can be saved, but only if conscientious steps are taken
sooner than later.
Her show is
a definite chiaroscuro mix of light and shadow, black and white like her Athi
River landscapes. Even the title of her show ‘Controlled Accidents’ suggests an
antithetical contrast since by definition, accidents cannot be controlled,
except perhaps by an artist like Yony who believes “there are no mistakes
[accidents] in life and art, only results you didn’t expect.”
One series
in her show illustrates that attitude beautifully. She calls it ‘pyro-graphic
art’ since inadvertently, three charcoal sketches of nudes that she’d drawn
during a Life Drawing class at Polka Dot, got tossed into a post-Christmas fire.
Explaining
her story to BD Life, Yony said she didn’t have festive paper to wrap her
Christmas gifts, so she used the paper on which she’d sketched the nudes to
wrap her presents.
It was while
tidying up that the drawings landed in the fire; but Yony managed to retrieve
them before they were burned to a crisp.
The papers
were partially damaged, but the artist had an eye to see the surprising beauty
of the scorched nudes. So she had them framed and included in her show as an
illustration of what ‘Controlled Accidents’ actually look like!
Someone
other than Yony Waite (who occasionally spells her name as Wa Ite) might have
let the ladies burn to a crisp. Others might have despaired since they felt
their artwork had been ruined by the incident. But not Yony. Her marvelous
imagination allowed her to see and appreciate ‘the results [she] didn’t
expect’.
Meanwhile,
Paul Onditi will have a solo exhibition opening Saturday, January 28th
at One Off Gallery.
No comments:
Post a Comment