By KIUNDU WAWERU
Is it possible that a heritage as diverse and complex as Kenya’s can be summed up in stones, clay, canvas or even scrap metal?
This is the great ambition that an ongoing exhibition at the National Museums of Kenya sets out to achieve.
Dubbed Our Art, Our Heritage, the exhibition features 30 renowned Kenyan artists whose craft dates from 1980s and earlier.
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Their varying concerns, as well as styles, offer a variety of perspectives rarely offered in one exhibition.
Indeed, the curators achieved a veritable collection of timeless work of art. "We want to showcase the richness of Kenyan art," says Kiprop Lagat, NMK’s Assistant Director, adding: "Most of the artists featured have been showcased internationally. We want to highlight them in Kenya, as everyone, including school children, have more access to museums than art galleries."
Daniel Njoroge’s painting of the some captivating landscape titled, Kenya Tu, captures the different lifestyles and climatic conditions, from the sandy beaches at the Coast, to the drylands of North Eastern; the snowcapped Mount Kenya to the wonders of Masai Mara.
CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
The Grand Old Man of Kenyan art, Francis Kahuri’s Blessing First Born and Taste It, Then We Discuss, showcase the traditional lifestyles contrasted with the contemporary.
Such nostalgia is absent from Tabitha wa Thuku’s work, Eyeing the West which spews impatient anger at a generation that sees its future in the West.
"As Kenyans, we turn to the West for all our needs: grants, education, medicine, education, phones and even for a good shirt. The artwork urges Kenyans to look inside ourselves and realise that indeed, we can do it on our own."
Wa Thuku started her artistic journey an illustrator for the defunct Rainbow Magazine, but did not consider herself an artist, although she was obsessed with art.
She says she does not take a walk, or do other crazy things to be inspired; inside her are ideas yearning to be expressed.
Elkana Ongesa’s sculpture, Crushed, is a magnificent piece. The wooden carving shows a distorted human figure, with a crushed head in the middle. All around are animals and birds struggling to get loose from the tangle. Shaking his head, a scraggly tourist, feeling the surface of the Crushed muttered, "This is typical of the Third World; the rich oppressing the poor, raping the environment."
But what was in Ongesa’s mind as he carved Crushed? He says Crushed is among a series of sculptures that he developed in the aftermath of 2007 post-election violence.
"I was mad at what was happening and my carvings are a message of the conflict," Ongesa says, adding that the violence only added fire to his creativity as he had been burning to do the series for a long time.
Ongesa depicts those affected by post-poll turmoil as the distorted crushed head, with the birds and animals representing the internally displaced persons.
SMOOTH SURFACES
"The message is that violence affects the weak, creatures and the environment," says Ongesa adding that all is not lost, as reflected in the smooth surfaces on his texture, which shows latent goodness in human beings. The message being, of course, one can redeem oneself.
Born in 1944, Ongesa took after his family members who had a long history of art and craft. He is a decorated painter and a sculptor, having been awarded by Makerere University for painting in 1968, and for sculpting in 1971.
He also boasts a Head of State Commendation for his contribution to art, among other awards.
His bronze monument, Her Mother, is permanently displayed at the World Sculpture Park Chang Chum City in North Eastern China and another piece is at the UN Headquarters New York, among others.
CREATIVE GENIUS
Other celebrated artists featuring in the exhibition include John Dianga, whose clay sculpture, Praying Africa, shows an African woman, heavy with child, praying, perhaps for the future generation.
Kioko Mwitiki displays his creative genius using old motorcar spare parts to depict the African Woman.
Kioko discovered his art by accident in the 1980s, just as the accident vehicles he repaired as a mechanic in Nakuru. A lover of animals, he would use scrap metal and blowtorch to depict the animals. He has since exhibited across Kenya, Africa, Europe and beyond.
All in all, the ongoing exhibition is a much-see for all art lovers and, indeed, all Kenyans.
