WAJUKUU TO REPRESENT KENYAN ART AT DOCUMENTA
Wajukuu
Artists Collective inaugurated their brand-new arts studio last Monday with a
week-long workshop for fellow artists from their Mukuru Lunga Lunga community
and beyond.
“We’ve been
building the centre since last June,” says Wajukuu founder-artist Shabu Mwangi.
“Previously, it had been a sugar cane plantation,” he adds, noting that was some
time back.
Shabu’s
colleague, Ngugi Waweru, explains that construction of the studio is not yet
complete. “When we are done, the studio will be a double-decker so artists will
be able to work both upstairs and downstairs,” he adds.
Ever since
2007 when Shabu launched the original Wajukuu Art Centre (which is just around
the corner from the new studio), the arts have played an important role in this
ever-changing informal settlement.
“The centre
is where we have all our special projects. Here [meaning the new studio] is a
space that’s exclusively reserved for artists,” Shabu tells Weekender.
Wajukuu has
also inspired many young [mostly] men, starting with Ngugi and Joseph Weche, to
take up the challenge of developing their own artistic talents. In this regard,
it’s Shabu who has been a role model for these emerging artists. “He’s shown us
how anything is possible if we’re committed to making it happen,” says Ngugi.
Shabu’s
commitment to art started early on, even before he completed primary school at
Rubin Centre in Lunga Lunga.
“Art was
still on the syllabus when I went through primary. And since Rubin Centre was
run by [Catholic] Brothers, there was greater interest expressed in art,” he
says.
Shabu’s
circumstances were slightly different from those of Ngugi and Weche since they
both went to Saint Elizabeth’s primary where art was not taught.
“I didn’t
learn much in Sr Mary‘s school. In fact, a few months after I joined, she moved
me into managing the college’s art and craft centre,’ he says.
The items
that he curated and sold there were what Shabu describes as basically tourist
art. It was mainly Maasai-related and wildlife. Nonetheless, he was getting
exposed to new ideas every day.
The idea of finding
a studio space to work in the slum was the first challenge that Shabu, Ngugi
and Weche wanted to solve. That quickly shifted to seeking space to build a
community-based art centre. “It was a process that evolved over a couple of
years,” Shabu says.
In fact, it
was the neighborhood children who played their part in the shift from an artists’
studio to an art centre. “They kept coming around and trying to draw and paint
like us,” says Ngugi. Eventually, the art classes grew out of the children’s
desire to be creative and to express themselves the way the big boys did.
Meanwhile,
Shabu’s artworks were getting noticed by several Nairobi galleries, and he began
having shows at both One Off and Circle Art Galleries.
“I had a lot
to say in my art,” he says, recalling the way his own social status as an
outsider was reflected in his painterly concerns for the oppressed, the
migrants, and refugees as well as those with psychological issues.
Today, Shabu
says some of Wajukuu’s members now have the means to move out of the slum if
they wish. “But we don’t leave. We want to remain to uplift our community with
art.”
That sense of loyalty is partly why art lovers have been so keen to support Shabu and the Wajukuu centre. “We want to stay here and help build our community, especially the youth,” says Shabu who feels art can indeed move mountains. His life experience is sufficient testimony to that fact.
Wajukuu has
even appealed to the organizers of what’s been billed as the biggest art event
in Europe called ‘Documenta’ which Shabu and Ngugi will be attending and presenting
artworks they’re creating right now.
“We’re in
the process of creating installations, a video and three separate books,” says
Ngugi.
Their entire
contribution to the event needs to be completed by early next year. “We’re
confident we will make the deadline,” Shabu says.
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