The Arts Kenya
Peterson Kamwathi: “I cannot invalidate someone who sees beauty in my work, but there is more to it than aesthetics and beauty. It has a message”
bull with doves, the international icon for peace. In his work animals become sym- bols for human issues. Te sheep represent people whose lives have been altered by modern weaponry. In most cultures sheep symbolise the sacred and are viewed as gentle, submissive and in part helpless. In the works, the sheep walk in earth littered with icons of weapons whose presence is only visible in the shadows. Although his language is local, his
very small part of society and I don’t want to be especially aligned to politics. I do not want to limit myself to that sphere.” Kamwathi is an artist who reacts to is-
sues. “Te latest body of work is looking at the symbolism around social, economic, political and cultural change. I am looking at the micro social cosmos – at my reac- tion to the [constitutional] referendum.” A dominant feature of his latest solo
exhibition, “Matter of Record”, held in East London in November last year at the Ed Cross Fine Art Ltd, is the constitutional bull prints. He began the series in the US and it continued for three years. Te reference to the iconic bull was extended to cover the 2002-3 constitutional confer- ence in Kenya, whose drafters met in a large auditorium called a Bomas.. Tus the drafting of the power-sharing constitution became known as the “Bomas process”. (In Swahili, boma refers both to a cattle enclosure and administrative offices.) Te then government offered the public
an altered form of the bomas draft, which when put to a national referendum was roundly defeated and resulted in a frus- trating stalemate. Tese events set Kamwathi to devise
his epic constitutional bull series (2005-08) of 12 woodcut blocks. Te outline of each large bull, used as the main symbol to rep- resent Kenya, is filled with a distinct motif: such as the Ndizi bull with bananas, the referendum’s sign for “yes”; and the Amani
themes are universal. Many of the works have dealt with queues; in Kenya queuing is part of the normal way of life – there are queues in transport and banking. “Tese are issues that affect human
beings in geographical spaces,” Kamwathi says. “I queued to clear customs in Nai- robi, I queued to clear border control in London. As human beings, we are sensitive to what is happening around us, borders notwithstanding. Te specific body of work I did was specifically targeted at what is happening in Kenya but the theme is universal.” In the woodprints showing figures
queuing to vote, the people are over- whelmed by ballot boxes, suggesting a stalemate of icons. Te repetition and dense arrangement of so many ballot boxes raises the issue of election fraud, inverting the ballot icon to indicate the corruption of the electoral process. Te woodcuts have many levels of meaning. It is possi- ble to just appreciate the bulls, the sheep, and the donkeys as works of art, expertly executed by a master woodprint maker. But Kamwathi is convinced that human beings are masters at peeling away the layers of meaning. “We eventually find our way to the es-
sence of things,” he explains. “It may take a short time, it may take a long time, but it’s almost guaranteed it will happen. Art is a process of constantly giving. Te first time you look at something, one thing grabs you; the next time something else grabs you. Te more you gaze at something, the more it reveals itself. “You pass a specific street and you no-
tice one element. You come back tomorrow and you see other elements and all these elements connect to form what you call a street. You move down a street in one direction, it looks different than moving in the opposite direction. I don’t think my work is meant to be something that you digest in one go.” He recalls one of his exhibitions with
a black and white drawing of a sheep. “A lady purchased one sheep drawing,” he recalls. “She told me she bought it because she liked the form. Tere were all these tags and symbols that related to conflict in the work. A work will always open it- self [up]. It becomes a chapter within a larger book.” Aesthetics are important but they are
just supporting elements to larger issues, to enhance the message of the woodprints. Kamwathi says: “A book can be beautifully bound but at the end of the day, it is the quality of the writing not the binding that is crucial. I cannot invalidate someone who sees beauty in my work but there is more to it than aesthetics and beauty. It has a message.” Sometimes Kamwathi wishes his works
were bigger. “I think about spaces. When the work is in my studio, it seems big. When it goes out of the studio, I see the world is bigger than the work.” A very important question for
Kamwathi is: “Who am I talking to? Does this work have relevance to London – a universal significance?” Turning to a practical issue with regard
to the Kenyan constitution, Kamwathi points out that there is a clause which covers arts and culture. “But this clause,” he says, “needs structures around it – the institutions through which policies can be implemented. We don’t have those institu- tions. Te constitution is a positive thing. As a Kenyan artist I can say I am included in the constitution.” To date, government support for the
arts in Kenya has been negligible and artists have very limited resources. Most support comes from private societies and institutions like the British Council and the Ford Foundation. “I hope there will be a lot more support
for the arts in Kenya,” Kamwathi prays. “For myself, I want the luxury of creating. I question a lot. Somebody spoke about finding a path but you can also forge a path.”
New African June 2011 | 89
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