Remains, Waste and Metonymy

Remains, Waste & Metonymy: A Critical Intervention into Art/Scholarship, Jan. 18 – Feb. 18 2016 @ National Museums of Kenya

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Remains, Waste and Metonymy
Remains, Waste and Metonymy: A critical intervention into art/scholarship. Curated by Neo Musangi and Joost Fontein.

Opening: January 22, 2016 from 6 pm

Dates: 18 January – 18 February 2016
Venue: National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill Road
Entry: Museums Rates Apply

About
This exhibition carries the remnants of an event held at the BIEA in Nairobi on 24th October 2015, entitled Remains, Waste and Metonymy: A critical intervention into art/scholarship. That event sought to provoke new avenues of collaboration between artists, scholars and other cultural producers around the themes of waste, remains and metonymy.

The unifying question bringing the interventions traced here together is how an approach to stuff as incomplete, open-ended and emergent can offer critical scrutiny to the assumed finality, stability and comfort of ‘objects’, ‘persons’ and landscapes. Always ‘in the making’ remains and waste often appear like unfinished biographies, metaphors, symbols or narrations that promise but rarely deliver entirely coherent meanings, bounded entities and stable wholes. Their indeterminacy can be creatively explored to reveal the excessive multiplicities of time, substance and space.

In exhibiting the remnants of these interventions here, we seek to reflect on how the traces of events outlive their particular moments, mirroring how our approach emphasizes process than product, emergence rather than finality, the subjunctive rather than the conditional, and the possible rather than the certain. In bringing together a diversity of critical intellectualisms we seek to provoke longer explorations of the uneasy yet creative analytical space between scholarship and the arts around the themes of materiality and temporality.

Sponsored by British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA)

We are who we are GI

Exhibition: Who I Am, Who We Are, Jan. 15–22 2016 @ Goethe Institut Auditorium

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We are who we are GI
Dates: January 15-22, 2016
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Entry: Free

About
Who I Am, Who We Are is an art project which examines the idea of Kenyan nationhood and how this is embodied through our sense of identity and our everyday interactions. The project uses art and self-expression to create spaces and conversations for personal reflection on the themes of citizenry, civic responsibility, race, belonging, ethnicism and nationalism. Two artistic approaches were mainly used to gather material on what it means to be Kenyan today. One, in the form of life-size paintings called ‘body maps’ and the other in the form of recorded interviews through a confidential and public installation called, “In a Silent Room.” Who I Am, Who We Are has collected archival material comprising of 80 body maps with their accompanying stories, 1500 audio recorded interviews in the Silent Room, 9 documentaries, 80 interviews and 2000 photographs. This exhibition will showcase a wide range of photographs as well as screen the interviews conducted.

The material gathered forms the foundation for an exploration of Kenyan identity, post-colonial thought and projections for the future of Kenya. These materials will be housed in a public archive, allowing Kenyans and those interested in Kenya to access the voices and narratives of those who participated in the project.

The exhibition is open from the 15th – 22nd January, Monday to Friday from 1.00 – 6.00 pm.

On Tuesday 19th January 2016, 6.00 pm there will be a public discussion.

Adinan Exhibition in Lamu

Out of Town/Exhibition: Anidan Art Centre Exhibition, Until Dec. 31 2016 @ Whispers Garden – Lamu Seafront

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Adinan Exhibition in Lamu
View the above exhibition at Whispers Seafront garden, Lamu, of the children’s artwork from ANIDAN children’s shelter. The kids have been making artwork with two visiting artists from Nairobi, Justus Kyalo and Kevo Stero

Dates: Until January 31, 2016
Venue: Whispers Garden – Lamu Seafront

Art works by Justus Kyalo and Kevo Stero

5th African Heritage Day

Exhibition & Concert: 5th African Heritage Day, Jan. 10 2016 @ African Heritage House

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5th African Heritage Day
On Sunday, 10th January, 2016 from 2:00pm to 6:00pm the African Heritage House will be celebrating one year since it was gazetted as a National Monument. There are several activities on the day such as a charity art auction, guided tour of the house and a music concert by Papillion.

Art auction proceeds will go into uplifting the livelihood of some of the pioneer East Africa artists.

The Art works are by: Sanaa Gateja, Jak Katarikawe, Expeditto Mwembe and Son Michaelangelo, and John Odochameny

Painting by Moses Nyawanda

Exhibition: Social Perceptions, Until Jan. 31 2016 @ Cultural Dynamism Gallery – National Museum

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Painting by Moses Nyawanda
Painting by Moses Nyawanda
Social Perceptions by Railway Museum Arts Studio Artists;

Dates: Until January 31, 2016
Venue: Cultural Dynamism Gallery, Nairobi National Museum
Time: Daily 8.30am – 5.30pm
Entry: Normal Museum Rates Apply

About
This exhibition of paintings by Kevin Ndege, Stephen Njenga, Samwel Njoroge and Moses Nyawanda is the artists’ response to certain social issues in the world we live in today.

The four artists have varied individual perceptions of this subject that each has addressed in a unique and captivating style. They work in a space situated in the heart of Nairobi’s Central Business District, the Railway Museum Arts Studio that is housed by The Nairobi Railway Museum.

Other members of this studio are Peter Ndirangu, Lia Barhane, Joan Otieno and Sam Githinji.