CYRUS KABIRU, THE JUA KALI GIANT AT GOETHE INSTITUTE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 9.11.23) Cyrus Kabiru is such a humble man that the public might never know that he is globally-acclaimed as well as the artist who create all the jua kali junk radios being shown as part of the current Goethe institute exhibition-installation ‘Amplitude of sounds”. Curated by the eclectic team of techy-artists, Down River Road, they apparently forgot to attribute the radios’ creator, this jua kali giant. But don’t expect any complaint coming from Cyrus. He has got too much on his mind to give his lack of attribution a thought. He has already received so much adulation from elsewhere, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York which recently acquired one of his radios. And that is just one of the many cultural capitals on the planet where his radios, spectacles and bikes have been appreciated. His public lecture, given in LA on ‘Giving Junk a second life’ is even on YouTube. But part of Kabiru’s appeal generally is his fascinating life story which you can see revealed through his art, in both two and three dimensions. Each reflects a different facet of his life, including generations that preceded him. For instance, his jua kali radios relate to his grandfather who was the first person in their village in Murang’a to own a short-wave radio. “Every evening ten minutes before 6pm, neighbors would come to our home just to listen to BBC‘s Swahili version of the News of the World,” Cyrus told BDLife when we met recently at One Off Gallery. The radio shaped villagers’ mind-sets, he said, so that if they heard about Oxford, they would vow to send their child to Oxford. That went on until AM/FM radio arrived in Kenya and his ‘Guka’ got one of them. “After that, he handed down his trusty shortwave to my father who in turn eventually handed it down to me.” Cyrus said, noting that Guka’s radio is actually in the Goethe exhibition. He received it while still commuting between Murang’a and Korogocho where he grew up but was sent to stay with his grandparents for fear that he’d ‘get lost’ like his friends who Cyrus said, today are either in jail, drug dealing, or dead. That decision to shift him out of town was a life-changer for Cyrus. He had already found his love of art in primary school where he’d draw caricatures of his classmates for pennies. So, by the time he got to rural areas, he was prepared to get to work. The only problem was he had no art materials. But he found them amidst the junk that people throw away, starting with bottle tops which he could easily get from local bars and cafes. By the time we first met Cyrus at Kuona Trust, he was still creating smashed bottle top sculptures, like the giant crocodile which he’d shaped with chicken wire and flattened bottle tops. “I had guys go to local bars and collect the tops for me,” he told me back then. He said he wanted to create art that spoke to him, like the radios he eventually made, after he’d become world famous with his C-Specks, and which also had a family story associated with them. Like the Guka who wouldn’t allow anyone to touch his radio, Cyrus’s dad wouldn’t allow him to touch his spectacles. As a result, the fruits of that suppression inspired Cyrus to create his own glasses, which he named C-specks after the public took note of his unique form of sculpted ornamental eye-ware. As it got more intricate, symmetrical and beautiful, and ever-worn by the artist as model, they were also shared online, in international art centres, magazines, and even by big-name Black musicians who wanted to know more about the artist and his art. That is also when Cyrus got invited everywhere from Hollywood and New York to London, Berlin, Milan, Tokyo, and even Cape Town where the brand new Zeizz Museum of Modern Art gave him an entire room to display his C-Specks. Meanwhile, Cyrus was starting to develop his Black Mamba bicycle series, based on the bicycle his dad wouldn’t allow him to ride. Again, he decided to create his own jua kali bike. Another unique creation was born, which also grabbed global attention. But it’s still the spectacles that are his greatest attraction and what hurled him into an international spotlight few Kenyans know about since Cyrus is still a humble man, even as he opened up his studio to apprentices whom he mentors up to now.