Michael Musyoka’s first solo exhibition at Red Hill Gallery in Nairobi raises more questions than it answers.
He creates beautiful flying birds who seem as if they could soar off the canvas.
Michael Musyoka’s first solo exhibition at Red Hill Gallery in Nairobi raises more questions than it answers.
‘Time and other Constructs’ features nine enigmatic yet elegantly-painted large artworks, each containing a visual narrative suggestive of several meanings. They’re especially curious as the artist often juxtaposes antithetical imagery in a single painting, as in his ‘Listening to the wrong voices III’.
He creates beautiful flying birds who seem as if they could soar off the canvas. Yet in the same painting he plants a sign reading, ‘Usikojoe Hapa’, (Don’t pee here!) Why such a deliberate violation of that exquisite aerial scene? It seems he would prefer to disturb by giving his art a deeper meaning. Musyoka himself is a soft-spoken man who’s transparent about his paintings. Thoughtfully explaining the way he creates the backdrops of each work, he says he first blends and dries his colours, after which he uses a squirt gun to spray each canvas with water. Left to dry in any way the water will, Musyoka admits it was an experiment. But it worked, since every one of his paintings has a backing that’s got a different texture, tone and abstract design. But that’s only the beginning. Then come the narratives. First there’s this chubby little boy who shows up in paintings like ‘Time 1 & 2’ and ‘Punitive Measures 1 & 2’. Musyoka is quick to confess the pudgy fellow is himself.
Michael Musyoka. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU | NMG
So here’s another key to unlocking the significance of what’s being revealed in ‘Time and other Construct’. These paintings are apparently ‘self-portraits’ of the artist who recalls he used to be like that chubby fellow who he still identifies with in his mind. It hardly seems possible, seeing Musyoka looking svelte and comfortable with his leanness.
Once one gets that premise down, it’s easier to see how one of the founding fathers of the Brush tu Art Collective could take this opportunity to spill the beans and paint about some of the most deeply-seated concerns that still trouble him. One of them apparently goes back to his religious upbringing when kneeling was an expression of humble petition to a higher power. But that might be reading too much into works like ‘Punitive Measures 1 & 2’ wherein all the young men are kneeling.
