Archive for June 2008
Working in Public Space – Ato Malinda
For the perspective of an artist who is coming from a background of painting, but moving into performance, read Ato Malinda’s comment here. Below is a brief excerpt.
‘If public exhibitions are not to be thought of as public space then this is the first time that I have worked in overtly public space. The experience is ever changing and I, in turn, have become a hyper absorbtive agent.’..
A few words on Public Art
As with any workshop with different artists from different backgrounds there is a spectrum of engagement with the issues surrounding public art. Below is an excerpt from Michelle Browne’s musings. Read the full comment here
Since we began the workshop I have wondered about my role here. What place do I have as a ‘mzungu’ coming to make art in Kenya? Walking through Barsheba I wondered how art fits into this place? What is public space to this community? I was conscious of not wanted to come to fix anything, to do something related to social/aid work. But then what do this community need? What kind of public art should be made there?
CHEMICALLY INDUCED LITERATURE
1450hrs, Tuesday, June 24th.
Somewhere on the Southern Mainland
Finally, a cold beer. It is not as cold as I like it, though; not cold enough that, as we say in Nairobi, it is ’sweating’. When a beer is ’sweating’, lines of water form on the bottle and cascade down it the moment you pull it out of the fridge. But most importantly, the label, when you pull at it, doesn’t tear but peels off with such ease it brings succour to the sexually deprived and closure to the anally retentive. I am not quite sure which of those it is that I am, but what I know is that a beer at that temperature sure does work miracles for me.
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Made on the Internet
As a writer, I cut my teeth on the internet a space where as far as writing goes, the dabbler meets the hobbyist and the MFA backed craftsmanship meets raw talent. The internet: a veritable patch pourri of style and form; a babel of trained and untrained voices; a cacophony of the phony know-it-alls outshouting of the too-smart-for-TV pundits; the only place in the wide world where genius shares both a podium and accolades with mediocrity.
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Invisible Public Art
Whilst researching the Maskani, Cultural Video Foundation moved all over Mombasa. They came back with a whole series of these pics which they call ‘Invisible Public Art’. Here is a selection:
Beyond the Bui Bui
Mute Ghost
Empty Dress
Insect Case
Friday night at the studio
Although the Wasanii International Artists Workshop is an established event by now, this year (the 6th to run) has two key differences. Firstly, it is focussed specifically on artworks which relate to public space. Secondly, it is interdisciplinary. Ukoo flani, a hip hop collective from Mombasa form a key part of the workshop. In collaboration with Cultural Video Foundation they are composing a new song and making a music video about ‘Maskani’, a form of public space intrinsic to Mombasa.
Whilst in Nairobi maskani means basically ‘neighbourhood’ in Mombasa it describes the public street space where you will meet with your friends to hang out; your corner on the block. When this emerged in discussions between Ukoo Flani and CVF they decided to write a song about what the maskani means to the Ukoo Flani members. On Friday night I visited them in the studio to witness the song’s production. It was a very fun experience.
We entered the studio by an unmarked door on Moi Avenue. There was not a single light on the three flights of stairs leading up the recording area, but we did meet a couple of voices in the dark checking that we were friends. When we arrived at the top of this Jacob’s ladder we were greeted by a highly industrious atmosphere. Signs on the walls discouraged idleness and there was a palpable sense of concentration amongst the Ukoo Flani family. Thats not to say they weren’t having a laugh; there was some powerful liquor doing the rounds, but everyone had written out their own lyrics and were wondering back and forth rapping quietly to themselves.
I popped my head into the small recording booth and then continued up to the rooftop. Here, more members were quietly pacing around, rapping their new rhymes to themselves. The recently full moon was now waning but still cast an ethereal glow over downtown Mombasa. I chatted a bit with Vincenzo and Sylvia from Cultural Video Foundation and we speculated about the nature of the public space discourse and how it generally seems to stay within ‘academic’ circles. Nevertheless it is obviously an issue which affects all of us.
As Vincenzo said the other day, if you never inhabit a public space with people who are from a different socio-economic background from you then they will forever remain a symbol, and never become an individual. So if rich and poor never actually come into direct contact with one another, as you might speculate is the case in a city like Nairobi, a city of automobiles forever ferrying human cargo through the city space, then that has a potentially huge impact on the cohesion of that society…
Anyway, I’m digressing a bit, as what I wanted to say was that here, in Mombasa in a small studio on a Friday night, non-academics (Ukoo Flani) were writing lyrics about what public space means to them. It seemed really significant to have this input from normal people talking about everyday experience rather than from academics. We will post the lyrics as soon as we can.
What was intended as a short visit ended up as a bit of an all-nighter. Even ‘tho Ukoo Flani are efficient with the studio time, song production still takes a while. Each member is recorded separately and then the producer assembles them all in a master track. It was a real education watching the song build layer by layer as each Ukoo Flani member added their personal touch. By 5 in the morning we were done, and after the only taxi journey I’ve had in Kenya where the driver is actually getting high whilst we were driving, we got home and I crashed into bed. More soon.
Scribbling at the museum
The eventful early months this year, got me thinking a lot about the history and state of the Kenyan nation. In moments of cynicism, and they have been a dime a dozen, I have even argued that a nation called Kenya has existed only in name and never in the shared ideals of its people. At one point, in my weekly online column at KenyaImagine, I wrote:
“Let there be Kenya,” said Queen Victoria. And there was Kenya.
To read more click here
The early days
After the first couple of input days we all started to get down to work. On Wednesday I sorted out the ‘nerve centre’, our space at the appeal court where we are keeping our ongoing documentation. This involved some slightly obsessive repositioning of tables (until I found what seemed like the right constellation) and setting up some display boards where we are keeping ongoing documentation of artists works in progress.
On Thursday I spent the morning in Barsheba, a neighbourhood near Bombolulu where Ukoo Flani come from. As Ukoo Flani are an intrinsic part of the community, it is possible for artists to work fairly freely in public space, something which is obviously harder in the more regulated public spaces of Mombasa Island. Attracted by this possibility, together with the advantage of working really closely with the community, many of the artists have chosen to work here.
One of the first artists I spoke to was Otieno Kota. Right at the entrance to Barsheba there is a tree stump and a metre further to the left, an unfinished wall. Kota had decided that this formed a kind of natural gateway, and he wanted to find objects to build up either side and link them at the top into an archway. He had begun to shape the trunk and was looking at ways of fixing objects to the wall. The creation of arch into Barsheba seems like a beautiful gesture, although it is by no means certain that this will emerge at the end. When I passed by on my way back out of Barsheba I came accross Kota transfixed by another trunk that he had found. ‘It looks just like a lizard’ he said. Whether this is incorporated into the arch remains to be seen.
After talking to Kota I found Phillip Nganga. Phillip was born in Busia to a Ugandan mother and Kikuyu father, but has lived in Barsheba ever since the early ’80s. He considers this his true home, as do his relatives in the rural sector who call him a ‘borntown’. Phillip is really into Graffiti, even tho there is not a big culture of graf here, and showed me the sketch of an Ukoo Flani piece he wanted to put up. The idea is to paint it in red, black and green (colours of the Kenyan flag). I will uddate you next week.
The other visual artist that we are working with from Barsheba is Edgar Odhiambo. Eddie is really into cartoons and illustration and is responsible for the art at the Hip Hop academy in Barsheba. He had not quite started work on Thursday as he was running around helping some of the other artists. We’ll get back to him next week.
I walked with Eddie through the neighbourhood until I reached a central area where several artists were working. They had chosen this open space within a few different houses with wall space and ground space that could be worked on. These kind of semi-public spaces within neighbourhoods such as Barsheba are interesting in terms of public space. They are used by members of the community for things such as washing and cooking, but legally I am not sure how they are owned by.
The shovel that Eddie was bearing was destined for Mihret Kebede. Mihret was sifting through some rubbish in search of useful and interesting objects. By complete chance she found what she had been searching for earlier that day on the beach, a net. When I asked her why she said that she wanted to make a trap! I left her with some ladies from the nearby houses washing the net for her.
Working just next to Mihret was Sheila Nakitende a multi discipline artist from Uganda. She was busy building a column from found wire, coconuts and beer cans. Apart from a bit of hassle from the local drunk, who assured me he worked for the Kenyan Special Forces, work seemed to be going quite well. It’s interesting that both Kota and Sheila had chosen these Classic forms. Perhaps this is an indication of what Art in public space is seen to represent. Perhaps..
Then, just a bit further on from Sheila I came across Samuel Koigi. Samuel had got straight down to work with a tyre and some hubcaps that he had found. Having sliced the tyre in two, put the hubcaps on either side and was beginning to build the chassis of his ghetto car from found flip flops. It was taking shape very nicely.
Leaving this open area I then wandered back to the local school. There I came across Isaac Chibua, Gordon Shamulenge and Mike Wafula. They were deciding which wall to work with to paint a joint mural, but had not got down to work yet. Eagerly awaiting.
And then, my last stop before heading back to the nerve centre was Evegenia Golant. She had begun to paint a mural of one of the local inhabitants who was posing for her. Apparently she posed without moving for almost 3 hours! Anyway, thats all for now. Will post something over the weekend.
MOMBASA AND US
Ok, so its Wednesday afternoon and the blog is finally up and running. Just to introduce things, this is the blog that hopes to keep you informed about the goings on at the Urban Wasanii, a workshop based in Mombasa, hosted by Kuona Trust and working with visual artists, film-makers, musicians and a writer.
The idea behind the workshop is to explore and investigate Mombasa’s public spaces, engage with a public audience and work with local communities. We arrived in Mombasa on Sunday evening and spent all day, Monday, in town, chekcing out the two main spaces that have been made available to us to work out off. The first was Fort Jesus- built by the Portuguese in the 16th century to defend the Port of Mombasa, a key stop in the spice-trade route to India. Fort Jesus, has since changed ownership from the Portuguese to the Omani Arabs to the British- who used it as a jail in colonial era Kenya- and finally settled in the hands of the Kenyan Government who have preserved its rich history and that of East African coast as a museum.
The other is the old Law Courts building. This building, opened on 31st December 1902 by Charles Elliot, the British government’s representative in what was then known as The East African Protectorate is now a national monument managed by the National Museums of Kenya. It is in this building that we have set up our ’nerve centre’.
The other places we visited include the French Cultural Centre and the British Council who have allowed us access to some of their resources such as work-spaces, computers and internet and audio visual equipment.
Tuesday morning found us wandering into Barsheba, near Bombolulu, which is home to Ukoo Flani- an ecclectic mix of young musicians, grafitti artistes, fashion designers and street poets- who we have partnered with to bring this urban experience to life. The neighbourhood of Bartheseba welcomed us; walls of shops and homes have been put at our disposal any of our artistes who feel inclined to create in that space have an entire neighbourhood with its feel, its sounds and its people to draw inspiration from.
Today, as everyone sets out on a mission to figure out where they want to work and what they want to work on, we set up this blog to bring you updates and word on all the exciting stuff that we will be doing. It is hoped that all the participating artistes will contribute to this blog and we will be introducing them to you by and by. That said, most of the updates and documentation will be done by Sam Hopkins coupled with lots of random musings, rants and running commentaries by our resident writer, Charles Matathia.
