ANNE MWITI INVENTS A WHOLE NEW ALPHABET

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 26 May 2024)

                                                        Perfection

Anne Ntinyari Mwiti is not a linguist. Nor is she a cultural anthropologist, nor even a novelist like JRR Tolkein who, like her, invented his own unique language for his particular purposes.

In her case, it was an issue of merging her multicultural identities for the sake of communication among the Maasai, the Kimeru, and the Ethiopian, all of whom she shares blood lines with.

                                                                            Happiness

To achieve that merging, she’s created a kind of alphabet or semi-abstract set of 35 symbolic images, each of which she associates with the essence (and language) of her being. It’s that ‘alphabet’ that is currently on display at Alliance Francaise entitled Essence.

In addition to all this, what Anne is, apart from being a newly-minted Doctor in Fine Art, from the Academy of Arts based in Szczecin, Poland, is a globe-trotter who loves to travel. In her capacity as a fine art lecturer from Kenyatta University, she has participated in several programs organized and funded by the European Union (EU). The first one also involved Pumwani University in Mombasa as well as universities in Poland and Italy and three museums from all three countries as well. It was also through that same program that she obtained her doctorate in December 2023.

The second EU-supported program that Dr Anne will embark on shortly is one which will involve the same three countries as well as schools and museums in Portugal and Greece. Fortunately, both of these programs have allowed her to travel back and forth from Kenya to any one of the other states depending on which course she’s currently involved in. “I’m able to hold on-line classes in painting and drawing for my Kenyan students, but students from the other schools can also listen in as well,” Anne told BD Life.

“I had always dreamed of having work that would enable me to travel because it’s so important to see things from a broader perspective, and a larger context,” she added, admitting that these programs are like a dream come true.

But as much as she’s enjoyed going abroad, Anne has been busy since receiving her advanced degree, looking inward into her psyche. It is there that she has sought the inspiration to intuit the ideas, images, and symbolic language that best reflects her own identity and the legacy that she has to share and communicate with all her people.

That is a large order to fulfill, but it began by looking into her background and bloodlines. Through interviews with family members, she discovered she has a multicultural legacy including not only Meru people with whom she grew up, but also Maasai and Ethiopian. The issue for her then became how to include all of those bloodlines in her sense of identity. That is how she came to feel the best way was to create a new vocabulary that could incorporate all three cultures. In essence, it would be like creating her own alphabet or ‘hieroglyphics’.

                                                                                      The Eye of God

It is those symbolic images that she has hung on display at Alliance Francaise until the end of May.  “I’m not done,” she says since she’s only created the first 35, each one having a different English name, anything from Happiness, Success, and Joy to Serenity, Invulnerability, Freedom, and Health. (Egyptian hieroglyphics number more than 7000). “What I plan to do is replace the English terms with proverbs, riddles, rhymes, and children’s lullabies starting with the Meru ones that my mother remembers very well,” she added. But that’s a process that she cannot get started on until she completes this phase of her “alphabetic” production.

For now, her show presents her abstract images on three different materials. All of the initial sketches are in ink?, painted in broad sweeping brush strokes on watercolor paper. These are where the images first arrive fresh from the deep regions of her psyche. Then she repaints them in acrylics on wood, and finally, she has a few drawn and stitched on burlap cloth.

From the prices she has already placed on her works, it would seem that Anne values the burlap more than either the paintings on canvas or her works drawn in ink on watercolor paper. She apparently has an explanation for this. It related to her upbringing, and the fact that her family grew coffee, the harvested beans of which would be packed in burlap sacks and then taken to market. The burlap represents success, fruition and the fulfillment of those goals through hard work and a family working together.

ART EXHIBITION AND AUCTION SUPPORTING KSPCA AND TNR

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

There is a gem of an art exhibition that has been continuing all this past week at Spinners Web. It will continue this coming Saturday night with an art auction at Muthaiga Club featuring nearly all the same artists and several more.

Both group shows were curated by Philippa Crosland-Taylor who knows nearly all the artists personally, so the selection is essentially her personal choice. Fortunately, she has excellent taste and a keen eye for up-and-coming talent, no matter if they are Kenyan, which most of them are, or from somewhere else.

The ones from outside are either from elsewhere in Africa, from either Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, or Zanzibar, or from Europe, from either Belgium, England, Germany, or US, and India.

And the Kenyans are from all over the country from either Laikipia, Ruiru, Teso, or Ngecha, Nyanza or Banana Hill. Nonetheless, most are currently based in and around Nairobi where we are currently witnessing a spate of beautiful new artworks and emerging artists springing up ever since the COVID lockdown was lifted and one found her/himself living in a different, new Kenya (for better or worse).

The two exposes are essentially fund-raisers for the KSPCA (Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals) which is Kenya’s leading animal welfare body, and a society that Philippa has been a supporter and advocate for many years.

“I’ve been fostering more dogs than I can count and finding them new homes, for as long as I’ve been here,” she told BD Life on the opening day of the Exhibition. “Now I own two rescue dogs who don’t appreciate all these strange dogs coming in and out of his home, so I’ve had to slow down. But I love being support of KSPCA which operates wholly through the support of private individuals,” she added.

Philippa also loves Kenyan art, which is how she came up the idea of the exhibition and auction. Most of the funds raised will go towards facilitating the merger of KSPCA with the TNR Trust. Both bodies are committed to animal welfare which has been particularly challenging since the outset of the COVID lockdown. That’s when many animal owners fled Kenya, leaving behind their dogs and cats to fend of themselves. That’s when KSPCA was inundated with animals who had nowhere to go other than the street or KSPCA which has tried to accommodate them all.

TNR is in the process of linking up with KSPCA since both bodies are committed to both animal and human health and wellbeing. But TNR is especially concerned that animals not transmit Rabies or have too many babies. So they periodically head out to communities where stray dogs and cats are Tracked, then Neutered and vaccinated for rabies, and finally Released back to their neighborhoods where they are no longer a threat to human beings.

TRN has had Kenyan artists supporting them in the past. One Off Gallery has helped organize those fundraiser exhibitions. This time round we’re seeing a whole new blend of artists including well-known names like El Tayeb, Xavior Verhorst, Mary Collis, Sophie Walbeoffe, Abusharia Ahmed, Yassir Ali, Bezalel Ngabo, and the late Timothy Brooke and Yony Waite. And among Kenyans, you will see works by names like Patrick Kinuthia, Samuel Njuguna Njoroge, Sebastian Kiarie, Mike Kyalo, Derrick Munene, Evanson Kangethe, and Morris Foit.

Plus there are new-comers to me that I was excited to see for the first time or else after a long time. They included artists like Mshana Mzuguno, Martin Kamuyu, Elias Bahati, Nannelle Sole, Peter Kenyanya, Hussein Halfawi, Achieng Owino, Solomon Muchemi, Issam Halfiez, Valerie Rusina, and Harrison Karanja who was introduced to art by graffiti artists Bankslave and Swift 9.

It’s a glorious mix of what is essentially a global exhibition. Fortunately, both the public art show at Spinners Web and the auction were not confined to only images of animals, be they wild or domesticated. There are plenty of Zebra, the most fun and funky are by Elias Bahati and Elijah Oolo (which is on the catalogue cover of the open exhibition), while there are several charming perspectives of elephants starting with Sophie Walfeoffe’s ‘Mother and child’ on the catalogue cover for the art auction. It’s followed by Patrick Imanjama and ones  by Mshana Mzugumo. One will also find guinea fowl, water buffalo. Birds of all types, and a whole herd of [her] camels.

But there are loads of other topics conveyed by these two beautiful collections, my favorite being the gardens filled with bright colorful Kenyan flowers.  

ps PHILIPPA JUST TOLD ME EVERYTHING IN THE AUCTION SOLD AND EVEN WORKS THAT WERE PART OF THE SPINNERS WEB SHOW WERE BROUGHT IN AND SOLD.  MUTHAIGA CLUB COMBINED WITH PHILIPPA'S ENERGY GOT THE PUBLIC SERIOUSLY INVOLVED IN SUPPORTING BOTH THE ANIMALS AND THE ART.

MILLAZ EXPLORES TIMELY ISSUES OF MENTAL HEALTH

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Millaz Theatre Company is one of the most successful community theatre troupes in Nairobi.

That is why, when they understood that May was Mental Health Month, the company’s playwright in residence, Saumu Combo, volunteered to script a play entitled ‘Backstreet Edition 2’ filled with issues relevant to the theme so they could stage it last weekend at Kenya Cultural Centre (since the National Theatre is still under renovation) under the direction of Faiz Ouma.

It was helpful to know that this was probably the reason we were seeing so much crazy behavior on stage. Initially the show began joyfully as a team of friends are portrayed as small children dancing and chasing each other playfully. We watched them grow up, so we soon saw them as teenagers going through emotional ups and downs, and in the case of Freddie (Tony Kosa) being unfortunately transformed into a violent and angry dirty fighter who in the heat of the moment punches their friend Spongy (Mbeche) so hard that he dies.                                                                                    By the time the cops arrive on the scene, they find Justin (Mugambi Ikiara) holding the body of, and so it’s assumed that he is the one who killed Spongie For some reason, probably loyalty to his friend, he takes the rap and gets charged with murder. Before he has time to tell his friends, his father (Samuel Baraza) insists he go join the army. It’s either that or jail, dad says. So against his wishes, Justin follows his father’s insistence and leaves without knowing that the night before, he’d impregnated his girlfriend Sarah (Red Brenda) who’d eventually abort since the father was a no-show and she wasn’t prepared to go it alone. But we learn all this later on. Up to now, we haven’t seen too much crazy stuff, apart from the booze-related death of one of the friends.

What is crazy is the hot-tempered, frenetic conduct of Freddie, who allows Justin to be charged with the crime that he’d committed. In contrast to his amoral conduct in the face of the loss of their friend’s life is the grief that Sarah clearly feels for the disappearance of her lover and the announcement that Justin had died.

Grief is another mental health issue that requires much sensitivity, patience, and time in which to heal emotions that have been traumatized by the loss of Spongy’s life. In Backstreet 2, Sarah isn’t alone. Even Abdalah (Gaitan) grieves but his situation is very different. He grieves over his own sense of personal shortcomings. He is infertile, and both he and his wife want children. She now is refusing to sleep with him since she’s told him in effect that his sperm is useless since it’s empty of the stuff required to give her a child. 

Next thing we know, Abdallah is pulling off his belt and knotting it so as to hang himself. Suicidal thoughts are ones that need to be addressed and cast out, something scores of Kenyan youth haven’t yet learned. In fact, we see how friends can defuse such negative thoughts with humor and shock. In Backstreet2, they team up and automatically pretend to help him hang. Yet at the last minute, both he and they reject the noose. It all becomes a joke, showing that humor can save a life.

Several more crazy situations relate to Justin’s return and initially being seen as a satanic ghost, not the real guy. Collectively, they run from him in fear, looking silly more than mentally sick. Eventually, he and Sarah get together in a passionate embrace that leads to a giant light-backed sheet silhouette a sex scene in which the passionate embrace extends into a theatrically orgasm, which leads to her having an abortion, over which she will probably also grieve in future.  

Ultimately, the final mental challenges come first from Justin in relations to his dad who had brow-beaten him all his life. He’d always been intimidated by him in the past, but no more. The other issue comes from Ude (Leila Tasha), the boozer who finally stands up and accuses them all of neglecting her needs. She had been among them from the start, ever prepared to comfort and affirm them, but she’d never had similar feelings reciprocated. Thus, the booze became the substitute for real affection.

Her remarks, chastising the whole team for their neglect of others’ feelings led to a resounding expression of gratitude, extending to their audience, crew and fellow cast members, as the show ended on a high note there.

HEARTSTRINGS-CRONY STAGED BACK TO BACK LAST WEEKEND

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (22 May 2024)

It was pure coincidence that two of our favorite comedy theatre companies staged shows this past weekend.

It’s even more of a coincidence that both were reflecting on the condition of the conman and con-woman, and how so many Kenyans have taken their hustle into that space. It’s not a coincidence however that several who played a central role in the formation of The Crony were once members of Heartstrings.

Indeed, even Heartstrings’ assistant director to Sammy Mwangi shifted to Crony where he’s now the man in charge of directing this talented team of actors. Yet HS director Mwangi has dealt with many young actors who come and gain immense experience at Heartstrings, and then move on, especially into film. He’s developed HS into a brilliant training ground where newcomers to the stage get their chance learning how to listen, act, and work with an experienced director like Sammy.

It was Crony Players who illustrated not just that conmen are everywhere these days, which is why the title, ‘Red Flag’ is appropo. It’s also that Kenyan con-artists are turning out to be some of the most ingenious, quick-thinking crooks that we’ve seen on stage or socially.

Red Flag begins with a trio of hustlers living on the edge of slum life in a tiny room with one narrow bed. From there, they all work for a mafia-type guy from whom they swiped Sh150,000 and he’s not going to let them get away with it. He comes banging on their front door, throwing them into a panic. They all rush to their online con tricks, hoping to make some quick cash.

But then, Osoro gets a call from a supposedly-American woman he’s gotten to know online. She’s so hot to see him in person that she’s just arrived apparently from abroad. Now there’s even more pressure. But what’s worse is that the mother of Osoro’s child arrives, lambasting him for his not giving her child support. That whole scene breaks down into Act 2.

Now they’ve moved over to the Westlands side of town where they’re supposedly renting a beautiful flat. The man showing them around (Humphrey Maina) is actually the caretaker, but he’s posing as the man in charge. They have no cash. Just enough to tip Humphrey so they can use the place for now for nothing. Then, just before the ‘American’ shows up, the woman wanting child support arrives. But as she is a trouble maker, she gets thrown into one of the bedrooms with her hands tied and mouth gagged. Then when the ‘American’ arrives, she’s got a big bag supposedly stuffed with cash. Of course, the trio are after the bag; but then the cops (Ben Tekee) show up and start arresting everyone present. All mayhem breaks loose as nobody wants to go to jail. But in the turmoil, the American takes off with the Sh150,000 the trio had somehow raised to bribe the cop; meaning both she and the cops were in cahoots to leave the amateur conmen her bag filled with dust and no cash inside.

The final blow comes when the single mother gets unleashed from the physical lock-down they’d thrown her in to keep her quiet. When she’s let out, one more truth is revealed. She had been conning Osoro all along. In reality, it’s Humphrey, the Caretaker who is the baby’s father. And that’s the final punch line.

Meanwhile, across town from Braeburn Theatre where Crony was performing, Heartstrings was staging ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ at Alliance Francaise. But something went wrong this time with the company. What they brought us was by no means a comedy. There were a couple of con-artists, but they weren’t the key players in this month’s melodrama.

The lead in ‘Wrong Time’ was Fischer Maina playing a sickly old man who’s miserable and busy inflicting his negativity on those around him, especially on his wife (Jerita Mwake). He shoots down all her positive plans with sharp mental darts, poisoned with booze that he drinks nonstop.

She wants a child but he can’t have one since his private parts got somehow smashed in between double doors. He also needs a new kidney so when one arrives, all on stage are tested for their blood type. That’s when we meet a young girl (Lydia Wabosha) who he’s prepared to adopt since he believes she is his child. But no, she has also been spawned by the Caretaker (Mitch Osibori).

It’s disappointing, especially to us who came for comedy, not disheartening tragedy.   

                                                                

 

SHABU MWANGI AN ARTIST WITH A WISE HEART AND OLD SOUL

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted May 13, 2024)

Shabu Mwangi is on a trajectory of enlightenment that is both rising and deepening every day. In this process, one of his central concerns is staying connected to his community and to humanity at large.

It's a concern made visible in his current exhibition at Circle Art Gallery. Entitled ‘Un)Contained Turbulence’, this his third solo show at Circle, reveals Shabu’s knack for the narrative as he reflects on a myriad of broad topics rarely explored by other             East African artists. They include the consequences of globalization, of capitalism, and fear as they impact whole communities.

Fear, as he sees it, has a particularly profound role to play in generating the turbulence and greed leading to untold tragedies.

One of his works that reflects on the global political scene is entitled ‘Distortion in Global Politics’. There are others that further expose how closely the artist observes global dynamics and correlates them to circumstances closer to home where he feels leaders need to be held accountable. It’s especially true when their constituents are crying for help, as in a work like ‘Crippling State’ in which a disabled man looks  like a Nairobi cripple out in traffic begging for bread.

This is not the first time Shabu has addressed such issues. But this is one directly relates to this moment when autocracies are on the rise with their hardline insensitivities as portrayed in a painting like ‘Agreeing Not to Agree”. Such bogus ‘agreements’ between insecure so-called leaders has also led to countless coups d’etats in Africa, which is another one of the 17 portraits painted in oils on canvas in this show. ‘Failed Coup II’ is all about the way one Army General managed to arrest rebels and throw the one in the painting behind bars.

Shabu has such a sophisticated perspective on power relations that he can paint a work like ‘Coercive State’ showing why wananchi need to escape such oppressive conditions. 

As Shabu sees it, fear and greed are both underlying factors in the land-grabbing that was most apparent during colonial times, when land was swiped from local populations who were sucked into master-slave sorts of power-relations related to the material value of land. Yet in a piece like ‘We belong to the land’, Shabu seems to say that the land owns us. Neither we nor the land grabber can actually own her since Mother Earth will remain here long after all of us are gone.   

Then there’s another disrupting turbulence that Shabu lays at the feet of insecure leaders who disregard their social commitments to gobble up all the resources, including the donor assistance meant to help the poor. But even the healthy are jobless because funds meant to generate work to employ them have been robbed. So many have lost hope and resort to booze, drugs, or suicide. What’s required, Shabu claims is a ‘Present Assertion’ by the oppressed to defy the odds and become successfully self-employed. The trick, he implies, is for youth not to lose hope.

‘State of Waiting’ is an autobiographic work in which the two characters are himself and his mother. “She is the one who stood with me when everyone else treated me like a lost cause,’ says the co-founder of Wajuukuu Art Centre who just had a major exhibition in Germany and will soon be off to set up another show in Morocco. He was also scheduled for a London exhibition but had to be postponed for the current Circle Art one. Nonetheless, when the Circle show delayed, he had to send works meant for Circle to London straight away.

“That meant I had to work swiftly to produce this body of works,” he reveals. Yet there’s nothing slipshod in either his mode of painting or his message. It’s as if he needed that sense of urgency to allow the free flow of ideas to come forth as they have. His painterly strokes have also been expressive at an emotional as well as an intellectual level.

Ultimately, a painting like ‘Trust the Path’ pretty much summarizes Shabu’s message to the youth, the disheartened, and to those in need of reassurance and comfort.

Some might say Shabu has a Christ-complex. But the reality is that he has seen the disconnect between the traditional bond of the wise grandparents and their children’s children. Now in his forties, he seems to feel one way to assist his community is to share his personal experience and wisdom with youth who care to listen. He has an old soul and an abundance to share.                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

THREE WOODEN CROSSES, KU STUDENTS' VERSION

Kenyatta University theatre students staged their version of ‘Three Wooden Crosses” last Friday night (May 3) on a distinctly untheatrical stage in Harrison Hall.

But making do with the best space the school had to offer, the show opened (an hour late) with a heart-wrenching monologue on the unpredictability of life by a ‘little girl’ named Angel (Fridah Chemutai) who promises to illustrate her point with what is coming next.

The rest of the play, scripted, and directed by Michael Mwangi, is a flashback, set inside a brothel.

The young sex-workers are having fun, dancing and laughing among themselves, apart from one.  Maya (Mercy Kajuju) is drunk and looking miserable. She had gotten pregnant by one of her clients and she’d planned on keeping it. But she tragically miscarried and weeps now for having lost the one way she thought she could use to escape the tyranny of their pimp (Evans Kimuli).

But he’s more interested in one of the other sex-workers, Tiana (Philomena Wambui) who’s dressed up differently from the erotic attire of the other girls. She looks more like any other secretary in town, not like her skimpily-dressed ‘sisters’ who she plans to leave that very day. She wants to be done with sex-work, to go back and be with her child, who happens to be Angel. But that’s easier said than done as we see when he arrives to find his ‘whores’ (as he calls Tiana) amusing themselves rather than doing their job, which is to solicit men and make him money.

He calls Tiana aside and asks her to do one last job. She rebels, but he reminds her with several hard slaps that she still ‘belongs’ to him. He proceeds to do the classic psychological put-down of the woman by mentally and verbally beating down her self-confidence, making her feel like nobody and nothing. It’s ugly and outdated but unfortunately, it’s still a chauvinistic male method to control the woman. The physical beating is what finally leads to her agreeing to one last client. As it turns out, he’s a blind man who believes he has come to a reputable hotel, not a brothel.

His first inkling of it is when Tiana tries to seduce him, and he is shocked. Then the pimp comes in and confirms his thoughts, whereupon the blind man wants to leave immediately. But then, he too is at the mercy of pimp who has planned to poison him for some undisclosed reason. We assume it’s because the man is rich. In any case, pimp gives Tiana a glass of water steeped in poison for her to give to the innocent blind guy. He drinks it, and sure enough, he dies.

Tiana is stunned by the ease with which Pimp can kill a man. He looks prepared to bump her off too since she knows too much. But he’s busy reminding her that the glass containing the poison had her finger prints all over it. He’d planned to kill her and then there would be no contest over who killed the blind guy.

But Tiana’s a fighter and quick thinker. She grabs the glass, throws it down hard to break, then grabs the most jagged-piece of the broken glass, which still has poison on the sliver. Then she struggles with Pimp until she can stab him with her ingenious blade. He too dies, and she runs with Angel who’d been waiting to flee with her mom.

Meanwhile, the play has a parallel story of a pastor (Abrahim Mwangi) who visits prisons and meets an inmate, Jack (Fredruck Ochieng) on the day before he is set to get out. The pastor is so impressed by Jack’s performance, he offers him a job saving souls. So once Jack’s released, they meet and start traveling together.

The two stories meet at a bus stop where Jack and the Pastor encounter Tiana and Angel.

The Pastor offers to assist the mother and child. Initially, Tiana declines his offer, but then, goes into sex-worker mode in order to ask him for fare.

Angel sees her mom try to seduce this innocent man, and in frustration runs away from her mother for good. There’s a futile search for Angel, after which they board the bus in mime-style. But the bus crashes and three of the four passengers die. Thus, the title, Three Wooden Crosses.

Unfortunately, the ending is clumsy so it’s unclear that Tiana is the one who survives. but that’s the play’s end.

Lots of unresolved questions remain, leaving us dangling and dissatisfied and wanting more clarity and resolution.

 

 

 

 

ELUNGAT PETER AT ARDHI GALLERY---DRAFT

 Being the baby in his father’s first litter of kids, Peter Elungat first learned to paint by copying the artworks of his oldest brother (Hosea who was at least a decade older than he was). He was barely out of nappies at the time.

“Art was fascinating to me from an early age,” he tells BD Life. “I used to love reading the Friday Nation (which my father brought home regularly) since it used to showcase great artists like Mary Collis and Jak Katarikawe. I also found a calendar that had their artworks in it, and I would copy their paintings,” he says shamelessly. He hadn’t had funds to attend art school, so he literally learned his painterly skills by emulating those      artists he admired.

He eventually made it to the Kuona Trust which had a library where he had his first encounters with artists like Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio whose hot-blooded passion so apparent in his art particularly impressed Elungat. Kuona Is also where he met Kenyan artists like Patrick Mukabi, Richard Kimathi, Jimnah Kimani, Michael Soi, Kyalo Justus, Maggie Otieno, and many others.

Kuona is also where he met Carol Lees of One Off Gallery who helped him have his first solo show at Yaya Centre in 2001. His close association with Carol and One Off, wich morphed for ten years into RaMoMa, and back into One Off lasted until 2017 when he chose to disconnect from the gallery system altogether and strike out on his own.

It was a radical move on Elungat’s part, but he’d felt a strong impulse to assert his artistic freedom and independence. Some people felt he was ungrateful for all that One Off had done for him. But others appreciated his joining the ranks of a myriad of struggling Kenyan artists. Either way, Elungat felt he was being true to himself.

“There was a proverb posted on one wall at Kuona, which I’ll never forget. It read (in translation) ‘Be committed to the purpose that brought you here.’ His purpose, he says, is to allow the free flow of ideas to pass through him onto canvas.

It sounds slightly esoteric, but actually, Elungat admits he doesn’t see himself so much as a creator as a messenger.

In his current exhibition at Ardhi Gallery entitled “Life Size”, one can see that soulful sense expressed in works like ‘Echoes of the Spirit’, ‘Sound of and Angel’, and The Biography of a Spirit. And even in the one sculpture he has in the show, it’s entitled ‘Soul of a Tree’. Not that he aspires to express himself as a sculptor. This five- foot by five-foot abstract work made with ‘gifted’ wire, acacia tree branches, and baby bamboo polls evolved by serendipitous means. Now that he has shifted his studio to his home in Kitengela, he has a garden where he’s planted flowers and other decorative plants, lots of leafy vegetables and spices, but also               acacia trees and bamboo. Having pruned one acacia, he saw its branches being the frame of the work. But it was like the same process in which he paints, which is gradually, layer by layer. That’s how the bamboo got into the act and the wire gifted to him by a neighbour. Today it stands at the entrance of the exhibition which includes two women artists, Olga---and Lily --- whose works occupy a whole other wing of this vast gallery.  

All of the artist’s works in this show, apart from three which share a dark chiaroscuro                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     style and are practically half the size of painting that feels quite alien to all the rest of his works, except that Elungat’s drawings are beautiful.

Yet the show as a whole reflects a tremendous diversity in its subject matter, while all are painted in oil on canvas and all have never been shown in public before.

      

The exhibition itself happened by serendipitous means. Both Elungat and Christine Oguna, the co-owner of Ardhi Gallery happened to be visiting the Mukuru Artists Collective on the same day. Elungat had already begun having artists working in residence with him at his studio in Kitengela. And Christine had planned on having an all-women’s exhibition but postponed it temporarily, but some of the young women who;d planned to be in it could be good candidates for one of Elungat; artists residencies. So they combined forces: she directed four young women to apply to go to Kitengela, and he agreed. It’s just ending now, and all are happy with their collaboration