LAMU SPACE STATION IN ORBIT ON SHELA

                                                   Artstronauts who built the Lamu Space Station in Shela Village

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 9, 2022)

Artists and would-be astronauts (call them Artstronauts) from the Lamu Space Station jetted into town last week, landing at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI).

That is where BDLife found Abdul Kipruto, Lincoln Mwangi, and Ajax Axe prepared to share their news and views about their imaginative, futuristic project which has taken off in Lamu since March of last year.

The threesome took turns tells how they obviously couldn’t bring the whole Space Station with them from Shela village where they have built the station from scratch over the course of nearly a year. But they were able to carry their raffia grass space helmets and goggles with them, which gave one a feel for which direction their fantasy space station has gone. They have largely relied on recycled trash picked off the beach and other local materials, like raffia grass to develop their ingenious project.

The trio represents less than half of their ‘artstonautic’ team of seven. The rest are local activist artists who got recruited to come on board to help build the space station. They are an eclectic set of islanders who were just as intrigued as Abdul and Lincoln with Ajax’s proposal to think creatively and futuristically about what they could bring to a brand new Lamu space station. The other four include Anna Mokeira, 21, an orphan trained in art at the Anidan Children’s Home, M.T. Shariff, 30, a business man, Shizemonize, a local rapper, and Patrick Mwangi who sadly got COVID and was with the project a few days. All have had a hand in constructing the space station which started as a fertile idea in Ajax’s head.

The energetic young American photojournalist who’s been visiting Lamu periodically since 2010 first met members of the Brush tu Artists Collective back in 2017. It wasn’t until 2019, during the darkest days of the pandemic, that she met several of them again at the Coast and shared her idea of creating a large installation to be called the Lamu Space Station. They were quick to come on board.

                                                   Lincoln Mwangi, Abdul Kipruto, and Ajax Axe at NCAI, Nairobi

Explaining how she came up with the project, she told BDLife the idea had been percolating in her head ever since she was in Sudan on a study grant from National Geographic.

“It was there in Khartoum that I saw artists protesting against Omar al-Bashir. They were actively thinking about what they wanted their future to look like. It got me thinking along the same lines,” she said.

The idea of building a futuristic space station further evolved out of a writers’ conference that she attended in Aspen, Colorado, home to family members of both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, two billionaire proponents of space travel. She had already been thinking about something like a fantasy space station in Lamu. She managed to talk about her concept during the Conference and roused substantial interest. The possibility of gaining some support for the space station was even raised. But Ajax couldn’t say whether Mr Musk or Mr Bezos have become Patrons of the project. But the future will tell.

It was when she met up with Abdul and Lincoln, artist members of Brush tu that things began to take shape. They were working at Anidan, sharing their artistic skills with children there when Ajax invited them to join her. They embraced the idea enthusiastically. So did the other four.

But before the project could get off the ground, the team had to find a base of operations. “We searched all over Shela and finally found an abandoned lot behind the dhow boat builders where we could begin building the space station,” says Ajax. She adds that the deal struck with the lot owner involved clearing and cleaning it up since over the past 25 years, it had become a garbage dump.

“We cleared 60 bags of trash so we could create a gallery inside the old house and an installation area outside it,” she says. The seven have been busy ever since.

                       Ajax's space station huts, 11 Ft or 3.5 metres tall made out of raffia grass and welded scrap metal 

“All of us have created installations,” says Ajax, who has used raffia grass to create several giant huts which are nearly 10 feet tall. Having learned welding while studying for a Master’s degree in Colorado, Ajax had initially welded her structures and then covered them with raffia (makutu) grass. “While is Sudan, I’d begun thinking about how to construct housing for internally displaced people using local materials,” she said.

One needs to visit Lamu to see how the Space Ship is flying and how the futuristic ideas are taking fresh forms, reflecting one more imaginative way to recycle trash that both tourists and locals leave mindlessly along Kenya’s most beautiful beach.