Tetanus. I have a morbid fear of corrugated iron sheets; “mabati.” Throw some rust in there and you are asking for a visit to an office with a couch. I think it comes from years of being warned by my grandmother to watch that I don’t get cut by the iron sheets that make up ...
“[Colonialism] dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it; that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit ...
A good exhibition needs good signage. Last week, I visited Gathee, a sign writer who has a “shop” along Ngong Road. He will be the official identity for the unusual location for the #Harambee63 exhibition at Kuona Trust. He had just completed a sign over which he had differed with the client. The client wanted ...
Renee Mboya who keep artists in check at Kuona Trust reminded me that I need to remember there is a door that I can’t move in the gallery. A danger in trying to recreate what is in my mind is that I also imagine it is possible to knock down a gallery wall. I think ...
I love gumboots. I love all my 63 pairs of gumboots. The History of Gumboots Gumboots were first worn in the Battle of Waterloo, a battle by the British against Napolean’s army (French). The British and Germans, in gumboots were led by the Duke of Wellington (British). Hence the name, Wellingtons and ...
#Harambee63 is the online aspect of a project that maps out the history of revolution in Africa before 1963. It will place Kenya’s independence movement within the global context of freedom from oppression against Black and Colored people. The first part of #Harambee63 is an installation @Kuona_Trust that blends art ...
“People don’t defend abstractions. They defend concrete things, the land is a concrete thing, a dwelling a school, a hospital thing. The struggle, the enemy is a concrete thing.” [youtube=http://youtu.be/bvj0Feq5vpI] Samora Machel led the battle against colonialism, against the Portuguese and at ...
Songs were used as an archive for history in particular, histories of oppression. From the Negro Spirituals derived from Field Songs, sang by slaves who were working on cotton farms in the U.S., to KLFA ( Mau Mau) songs sang by detainees as they were transferred to detention camps and reserves, to Miriam Makeba, who ...
“I wish that all the world goes back to the words of Jesus and read the words again, because they are acting against God now.” – Gaddafi (1978) http://youtu.be/ZlvLthYwBiM A documentary about Gaddafi and his idea of Jamahiriya (Jamuhuri/ Free Republic) – 1978
