MICHAEL MUSYOKA’S COVID-CONSCIOUS ARTISTRY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (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!