By Margaretta wa Gacheru
Mike Kyalo is the real deal.
In his current exhibition entitled ‘Mathioya Tales’ at Banana Hill Art Gallery, he paints Kenya street life in its earthy actuality.
Okay, it’s true that he doesn’t go into people’s bedrooms or behind their mabati walls in the informal settlements to see what people do when nobody’s supposed to be looking.
But he reveals the various economic activities that engage and sustain a wide array of street people, people who used to be known as ‘jua Kali’. It’s a subject matter that quite a few local artists are also focused on, but Kyalo has his own take on the topic.
“Mathioya isn’t just a village in Nyeri county,” Kyalo tells BDLife. “Mathioya is a fictional character who for years was mainly telling stories about boda boda taxi drivers. But he has now moved on and has seen lots more of Kenya’s busy street life,” he adds.
For instance, it’s apparently Mathioya who is intrigued by the many guys selling sugar cane of the street. But like so many jua kali workers, these men are not just selling sugar cane. They have long sticks of cane that they slice before our eyes, and then shave off the skins so they can sell bite-sized pieces to those who love munching on those tough, crewy morsels filled with fiber and sweetness. “Those bites are so much healthier to crew than costly candy bars and cakes,” Mathioya seems to say.
Food is another topic that Kyalo and his character Mathioya tackle in a work like ‘Outdoor catering’. Usually situated just across from big classy malls like the ones in Lavington and Westgate, these open-air restaurants, (called kibanda’s by the locals) sell everything from omena (small fish), greens and ugali to mukimo (a mashed potato mix) and cabbage to ndengu, chapati, and greens. But again, part of the charm of such places is not just the prices, (which allow locals to eat hearty meals), but also the fact that the cooks who make the food are present as they prepare plates for the public to eat.
Kyalo’s ‘Outoor Catering’ is of special interest because it is one of two pieces in the show that were painted with molten colored plastic that Kyalo used in place of acrylic paint.
“I was painting during the COVID lockdown, but didn’t have the means to buy more acrylic paint. So that’s when I had friends collect plastic bags from the nearby dump sites for me,” Kyalo explains. “After that, I burned the bags and used the melted material as if it were paint,” he adds.
Both ‘Outdoor Catering’ and an untitled piece featuring a bicycle transporting stacked crates have been painted, not on canvas but on plywood. And both tell stories in bold colors and thick brush strokes that convey a message of ingenuity, imagination, and expressionism.
The other topic that is often repeated in various forms in Kyalo’s solo show is the problem of water. Mathioya is deeply concerned about the water shortage that is threatening the whole country. It’s also a topic that Kyalo explores, often featuring men with their big yellow containers which they use to deliver water to the needy. But in his series on Water shortage, we see that even the water venters are at a loss for where to find water.
Kyalo also paints a few idlers in his show, but most of his characters are busy. There’s the bicycle man, (the early version of a boda boda) transporting a young woman, a man hawking his bananas to a passing matatu on the chance that a passenger might need one, and local construction workers putting up their stone bricks in a row along the roadside.
But two of Kyalo’s most intriguing paintings are of men overloaded with towels or plastic buckets or other assorted things. You must have seen them on the streets, often walking between cars during Nairobi’s perennial traffic jams. These are the ‘mali mali’ men, the guys who barter items but don’t buy or sell. If you frequent certain sides of Eastlands, you will hear them early in the day in the estates, singing ‘mali mali’ to announce that if you’ve got something to exchange, please come out and see him there and then.
The other feature of Kyalo’s art that gives it fresh appeal is his use of bright, bold colors, sunshine colors that correlate with the city’s clear blue skies.
His show runs till the end of the month, but it’s being extended an extra week.
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