Art isn't trash

You are known for your glasses - the C-Stunners. What are you trying to communicate with the glasses? Or is it something you are trying to see?

I am known for creating the glasses. The glasses are not about me trying to see something, but rather for changing the way you see.

The glasses are made from waste metal or discarded electronic materials that you collect from the streets and other places. Why?

I love nature. When I use trash I feel that I’m playing a part in saving nature. Using trash also makes me feel like I am giving something discarded a second chance at life.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a project called the End of Black Mamba. This project incorporates video documentaries with sculptural series on the famous black mamba bicycles. The aim is to memorialise the vanishing of the iconic bicycle, which was a common feature in probably over 80 per cent of the Kenyan households in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I have already exhibited in Cape Town, Belgium, Italy and now I’m showing the series in Barcelona.

What do you paint?

My paintings are cartoonish. This is just the way I see the world. My subjects, though, keep changing. For instance, I am currently painting my own self-portraits, wearing my glasses.

It is interesting to note that as a painter, your medium is humour and as a sculptor, you mask the face (yours and other people’s) with your hugely beautiful but distracting glasses. Are you hiding from something?

No. I have got nothing to hide and the glasses don’t distract, they stun.

Do you ever fear, that any piece you create may fail to convey your thoughts?

Of course, yes. Not all the glasses or all paintings go the way I want or turn out as intended but there are people who love them as they are.

What is the most unflattering criticism that you’ve heard about your art?

I have heard people say that my glasses look weird. To some people the glasses are just trash. I understand them.

There is this misconception that art in the form of paintings and sculptures require fine societal refinement and socialisation to be appreciated and understood. The kind of refinement that only the elite possess. Is this true?

Here is how I see it. When I make my art, I always do it to make me (the self) happy and when I’m happy, everyone who loves my work will be happy too.

You are clearly loved and adored broad. You have exhibited your work in Turkey, Italy, USA, England, Sweden, Holland, and South Africa among other countries to great success. How receptive and appreciative of your work are Kenyans?

My work is not known in Kenya. It puzzles me, honestly, I don’t know why. But out there, my art is big. Most of the students abroad are studying about me and my work. This means something. Right?

Being a self-taught artist must give you freedom and liberty to explore and experiment with your art much more than the ‘technicalities’ bound trained artists, right?

That is absolutely true. Being a self-taught gives me freedom to experiment in and with any media. But this don’t mean that studying art is bad.

You are setting up your studio in Ruai at the moment...

Yes. I am building a studio as a way of moving forward and it’s a good and big step. The studio is open to everyone.

Pieces of art-paintings, sculptures, installations, sketches, movies etc. are generally effing expensive. Not just yours, all art, everywhere. Why is that?

When you sell your art, you sell creativity. Art is expensive to whoever don’t like it.

In terms of pricing, what is the highest amount you’ve ever received for a single piece of work (either as a single unit or as an ensemble)?

I can’t disclose that. But here is a fact; my art is very expensive.

What would you like to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered for what I do and for what I have done.