ZEBRA CROSSINGS, WHERE RICH AND POOR MEET
By Margaretta wa Gacheru
May 2012
Samuel Githui has attended art
residencies in Italy and seen what international artists ask for and often
obtain on the European art market. His art is even in permanent museum
collections overseas.
Samuel Githui's Kusimama na Kumi is on show at OneOff Gallery through end of May 2012. Pix: Marta Obiegla
Yet by bringing a comparable
pricing scale back with him to Kenya, Githui’s art may be beautiful, even
thought-provoking, but the price-tag may be more than a Nairobi art market will
bear.
Currently, at OneOff Gallery (in
Roslyn), several of his paintings are selling for nearly KSh900,000: Mitungi, Nyororo, and Kusimama na Kumi which ironically are
all reflective of the more humble side of Nairobi life, a world Githui knows
well.
Samuel Githui's Mitungi at OneOff Gallery through end of May 2012. Pix by Marta Obiegla
For Githui is a guy who had to
drop out of Creative Arts Centre in the early 1990s for want of school fees. He
went to work as a sign writer, painting billboards and logos for Softa soda,
BAT and even Trust condoms.
He tried his luck with Gallery
Watatu when Ruth Schaffner was still around. Yet the only way she would look
twice at his artwork was when he shifted his style to something that appeared
more untutored and naïve. By so doing, his work got into the initial East
African Industries for East African Art exhibition in 1995.
It also led to an invitation from
Rob Burnet to join Kuona Trust at the outset. Unfortunately, the promise made
to provide art materials to struggling local artists was kept for only two
weeks, according to Githui.
“After that, we were told to bring
our own art supplies, which I couldn’t afford.” Plus bus fare from Donholm
where he still lives to the Museum and back on a daily basis was also
prohibitive.
Githui’s big break came in 1998
when a fellow artist, Dishon Obok, introduced him to Family Planning Private
Sector, the NGO founded by Dr. Erick Krystal which since the 1980s had been
enlisting local artists annually to help create socially meaningful calendars.
The year he started painting for
FPPS, the social message artists were asked to illustrate was on corruption.
Githui’s painting, called Land Grabbing
won him KSh20,000, which at the time was big money to him. It gave him
incentive to paint for FPPS for several more years.
One of Githui's best examples of the contrast in Nairobi between rich and poor, skyscrapers vs matatus. Pix: Marta Obiegla
Meanwhile, Transparency
International also took note of his powerful political art which revealed the
consequences of corruption, especially its impact on children and the growing
social inequality.
In his current OneOff show, called
Zebra Crossing, Githui returns to the
theme of social inequality. Yet he does so with subtlety and understatement.
Bamba (Air time): A man stands in line to buy airtime for his cell phone. Pix: Marta Obiegla
For instance, one might want one
of his works out of appreciation for his cross-hatch technique of painting with
contrasting hues of light and dark. You need not know the contrast is symbolic
of Zebra Crossing intersection, which is just about the only place in Kenya, he
notes, where the rich and the poor meet!
Think about it: the man on foot,
on a bike, a boda boda, loading a
wheel barrow, or waiting to board a bus. All are pictured in Githui’s
paintings, yet none of them regularly encounter a rich man except on the road,
where supposedly the pedestrian has the right of way.
Kwa Mataa: Waiting for the Traffic Light to Change. Pix by Marta Obiegla
Ironically, the rich man is barely
visible in Githui’s art. Instead, it’s filled with humble folk: many men on
bicycles, one with hessian sacks (Gunia)
at the back, another riding in the pouring rain (Mvua Kali), another stuck with a broken chain (Nyororo).
He’s painted casual laborers (Vibarua) wondering where to go next, a
family on foot loaded with all their belongings (Bwana na Bibi) and a young lad waiting in line to buy 20 bob of
airtime (Bamba), symbolic, Githui
says Bamba is symbolic since youth generally have much to say about solving
Kenya’s social problems, but no one’s listening.
One of my favorite paintings by Githui is Mifuko, bags, just because my dear mama was a Bag Lady. Pix: Marta Obiegla
Zebra Crossing is filled
with images of busy Nairobi life, like Ya
Leo which is a portrait of a mitumbia
(second hand clothes) seller scrubbing his wares so they look like ‘new’ once
he takes them to the street for sale.
The only evidence of the Big Man
in the show is Kanjo, which is Sheng
for the scary City Council guys who drive around in large Land Rovers and demand
bribes from the locals.
Currently preparing for the next
East African Biennale in Bujumbura, he just took part in this year’s EAB in
Kigale, the only Kenyan attending. Locally, he’s exhibited at Nairobi National
Museum, at Gallery Watatu, the late RaMoMa Museum and Le Rustique restaurant.
Having exhibited both locally and abroad, Githui has come a
long way since he dropped out of CAC. But he still lives in Donholm and stays
in close range of glaring inequalities of Kenyan everyday life. His portraits
are powerful reflecting people’s struggles to cope with the harsh realities of
their lives.
The Loft at OneOff Gallery ironically is above the main exhibition area where Carol Lees holds cosy gallery openings almost every month. Pix: Marta Obiegla
Brilliant piece Margaretta, on a brilliant artist
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