Portrait of Kenya as a luscious lass

With the disparate voices that on occasion speak for Kenya (the media, the government, the political class, the civil society), the close of the Little Art Gallery’s painting exhibition, ‘Finding Voice II’ at the Kenya Cultural Centre on Sunday last week offered a good opportunity to get an additional perspective. 

The exhibition featured Boniface Maina and Michael Musyoka as the main artists, and collagist James Njoroge as guest artist.

Musyoka’s portraits were punchy and evocative, Njoroge’s jam packed with frenzied emotion.

But it was 27-year-old Boniface Maina’s paintings that brought out the various aspects of Kenya’s persona as he attempted to lay out its voice. Lively, simple and colourful, his paintings reveal an artist alive and perceptive to the situation of the day.

His first piece ‘Gray Status’ gives voice to the confusion Kenyan society is awash in right now as it struggles to examine and re-evaluate its value system.

The painting shows two effeminate men adorned with earrings, nose rings, eye shadow and lipstick.

Their wrists are daintily thrust out in feminine pose. As though the painting’s pink background does not shout it loud enough, it is clear, these are gay men.

The homosexuality question is a hot topic in Kenyan society, which interestingly seems to have taken a more liberal stance towards it than Uganda and Nigeria, where politicians use it as a political tool to rouse public ire.

HOT TOPICS

Maina voices the Kenyan conundrum in the caption: “It’s such a confusing time for our society. If you are for it, you are immoral, and if you are against it, you are homophobic. So where do I surely stand?”

‘Wanataka Kujua’ is an eerie picture of ghoulish faces dressed in suits, gathered round sheaves of paper which they all peer down at. This painting speaks of the desire to know and understand life as it is, as though there is a lot in the dark (and indeed the characters are in a gloomy room).

‘Transparency and Demo-crazy Casino,’ which follows it, also alludes to this theme, power play also coming into the spotlight. 

This one is a chilling picture where two people are sitting across each other as they play a game of cards. Each, unbeknownst to the other, holds a gun under the table. One receives an additional card, clearly cheating, from under the table as the Justice figures on each side surreally step out of their spaces.

‘Check Mate’, turns the heat higher on the theme of vicious politics. This one is more overt. The artist presents us with Raila Odinga in trademark hat and orange coat, and Uhuru Kenyatta in a green jacket and a red tie seated across each other, a chess board between them. Scores of supporters on each side urge them on, oohing and aahing at every move. What is perhaps most interesting is that the time clocks on each players side tells a different time. 

‘Doctored Mindset’ takes up from the earlier painting that spoke of a search for truth — ‘Wanataka Kujua’, publicly stating that the situation in Kenya is one of a lack of original thinking and spoon-feeding, as opposed to taking the time to think. It alludes to a situation where groupthink is preferred to individual reflection.

The character here pushes a book away, choosing not to read, as drops of a deadly green liquid are dripped into his head. Maina also puts his paintbrush towards the religious world.

As if to say that even religion offers no light, ‘The New Order’ takes a dark look at the Church, showing us a pastor hovering above his dark wretched subjects (literally painted as being in the dark here), a Bible in one hand, a gun in another.

As if the logical outcome of a ‘doctored mindset’ and a citizenry in the dark, this artist then depicts foreign exploitation of Kenya where a character personifying Britain pushes a bottle into the mouth of Kenya. The character representing Kenya guzzles the liquid down happily, eyes closed in contentment as he signs away a ‘life treaty’ in front on him.

This scene is reminiscent of the pre-colonial treaty signing where traditional leaders ignorantly signed away land to the British government. The character representing Britain keenly eyes the signing. Behind him are empty bottles with flag insignia of powerful countries and others still full queuing up to be next in line. A clock on the wall ruefully says ‘Since time memorial’ ( I suspect the artist meant to say immemorial).

LOVE IN THE AIR

‘The Blue Print’ follows the same theme, showing Chinese contractors working on a project in which groups like the EU, ICC, UN, and USA have an investment in as can be seen from their insignias peppered all around. The AU stands under them drawing a blueprint in the dark.

Behind them stands the persona of Kenya, chained to a steel ball, which is satirically inscribed ‘We are one’, laying bare the powerlessness the Kenyan middle-class tries to cover up as it chest-thumps and continually repeats this phrase when faced by external attack. 

‘Wooing by the Riverside’ sets off on an entirely different path. It gives voice to the nation’s yearning to merge its disparate parts. It can be said to be the attitudinal progression of the tentativeness shown in the couple in ‘Rehearsing a ballad’.

The couple at the riverside is curled up around each other, their faces radiant with bliss where before they were distant and tense. ‘Tujuane’ is another interesting one. It depicts a bald headed couple, the man whispering ‘sweet words of nothing’ into the woman’s ears as she glances aside, a  mix of cynicism and coyness on her face.

And then there is ‘Nikumbatie’ which shows two men hugging. One of the men in the embrace has an anguished expression on his face while the other lets out a half-smile, as though rugged and world-weary.

Maina’s presenting different couples going through different moods, emotions and attitudes, shows a mature understanding of unity and wholesomeness as a cycle, a dance, and an exploration rather than a fixed-in-stone event. This is the case for both a nation  and an individual.

‘Music Composer’ turns the volume up on the theme of the search for harmony among Kenya’s disparate 42 communities, showing us a woman in a dark room hunched over a stool, an old piano in front of her.

KENYA'S POTENTIAL

She is scribbling into a page and has been at it for a while as we can see from the two scrunched up pieces of paper on the floor.

She is clearly multi-talented since right beside the piano lies a saxophone and a violin. This says something about Kenya’s potential, suggesting that even apart from areas it has outdone itself in (such as athletics and technological innovation), it still has the capacity to actualise in much more.

The last painting ‘Chini ya Clock’ is quite poignant. It depicts a curvaceous young woman, her nubile form artfully draped on a green bench under a public clock.

Youthful and carefree, her pink handbag lies on the ground next to her feet as her eyes are shut. She is lost in her own world, listening to music on her iPod through the speakers clamped to her ears.

The fact that this painting is standing on its own towards the end, with almost no relation to the nearby pieces, makes it appear to be the artist’s summative piece. It is as though the ‘voice’ of Kenya is concluding its monologue by saying, “After all that you have looked at, this, in summary, is me.”