DICKENS A RISING STAR IN THE VISUAL ART WORLD

By margaretta wa gacheru (published 12.16. 23) Long before he had ever heard of the Nigeria-based Ghanan-born artist El Anatsui, Dickens Otieno was busy flattening metal bottle-tops and making them into hand-stitched sculptures. Even so, Dickens’ sculptures were qualitatively different from those of the acclaimed West African artist. He didn’t simply stitch his bottle tops together to create flattened tapestries. He actually cut his bottle-tops and metal tins of Kimbo and Tusker beer into metallic threads that he could then weave into new fabrics that he would use to design his own metallic outfits and uniforms. “I was starting from scratch, not having funds to buy art materials, so I decided to make my own,” he told BD Life a few days after his show opened November 25th. Having a mother who was a seamstress who often created her own clothing designs from scratch, her work had a profound impact on him. He studied mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic. But when he came to Nairobi looking for work, he couldn’t find it. Instead, he found the original Maasai Mbili, Kota Otieno and Gomba Otieno (not relations). “Kota became my mentor in shifting my interest in painting to sculpture,” Dickens recalled. “It was his use of recycled trash that inspired me to start doing the same.” Currently, his metallic sculptures and three-dimensional tapestries are on display at Circle Art Gallery. Entitled Trails, they mainly reflect a mix of Dickens’ memories and recent journeys back and forth between Nairobi and his home in Migori County. Traveling by Bus gave him many hours to take in the landscapes, views that inspired creation of tapestries like … and… But Trails, the title of this his second exhibition at Circle doesn’t refer exclusively to the personal treks he made in preparation for this show. It also refers to the assorted trails that he saw in rural areas, both man-made and animal-made. His tapestries track the man-made trails of ‘Climbers’ and a Hiker, while he also sees ‘Cow Tracks’ and the largest tapestry out of the 13 in the show, his Panya Routes. It’s a monumental piece (3.11 x 5.93 meters) and it reveals just how far the artist has come. When we first met almost 15 years ago, his metallic sculptures were already gems of creativity. But they were much smaller and more illustrative of the role his mother had played in his art insofar as his hand-woven garments were a mix of school uniform-styled outfits and fancy dresses worn of special days. In his Trails exhibition, he has three sets of fashionable outfits, namely three shirts, two short pairings plus one long skirt. All are colorful, perfectly contoured, and shimmering despite Dickens’ still using recycled metals that were ‘found objects’ before he sliced them into threads, then wove by hand into fabric, and finally constructed them into gorgeous garments that he designed. Evidence of Dickens the designer is the tapestry entitled Sketchbook page, Uniform Series. It’s a work which explains part of his process and the ‘trail’ that he’s traveled as he’s gone on to become the masterful sculptor he is today. Back on his Western Kenya trek, Dickens spent time at the Lake since Lake Victoria also made a profound impression on him as a child. His love for her waters is reflected in the tapestry, Waves (Oscillations). Designed in his 3-D sculptural format, he’s carefully selected the colors of aluminum cans (Blue and white exclusively) which are shredded, then stitched onto steel mesh. Nature generally is an important feature of his art as seen in works like ‘Darkened Clouds’ and Pe-Hills Seasons. Clouds is particularly ambitious since it's a diptych that tells the story of the sky with its blue hue darkened by grey clouds foreshadowing the storm to come. Initially, Dickens worked alone, which is how I found him working and weaving at The GoDown art centre more than a decade ago. He immediately impressed me with his inventive practice which was creating colorful material that he would thereafter use (like him Mum) to design his own garments. Initially, those garments were relatively small, as if made for a child’s school uniform, something his mother might have made out of local cotton. They also reflected the artist’s own modesty. He was still working at the experimental level. But gradually, as he gained more assurance of the direction in which he wanted to go, his designs diversified and his garments got bigger, bolder and still more shapely. But despite the fact that he has collectors of his garment sculptures, he has been encouraged to create more tapestries. Trails is a sign that he has listen to that voice which has compelled him to tell stories about the land, the light, and the waters of Lake Victoria. Dickens is one of only four Kenyan artists who featured in the 59th Venice Biennalle inside the Kenyan Pavilion. His inclusion is a huge statement about the quality of his art and the recognition his work is finally receiving and uis well deserved. His Circle Art showcase, Trails, will run until early January. .