Kuona exhibition highlights values of marginalised group
Photographer Tahir Karmali (left) and sculptor Meshak Oiro at the Kuona exhibition. Photos/Margaretta wa Gacheru
There are few hot-button issues more explosive in Africa today than homosexuality.
Across
the region, from Nigeria to Uganda and potentially in Kenya, laws are
being changed to not just criminalise the condition (MPs) recently
renamed ‘gayism’.
If accused and convicted of what’s
now legally considered an offense against Nature and the State in some
parts of the region, that person could be jailed for life or even worse:
their offense could be punishable by death.
At Kuona Gallery, Tahir's images and Mescak's masks. Photo by MD of The Star, William Pike
So an art installation like the one currently on at Kuona Trust is most timely.
At Kuona Gallery, Tahir's images and Mescak's masks. Photo by MD of The Star, William Pike
So an art installation like the one currently on at Kuona Trust is most timely.
Tahir
Karmali never assumed his photographic exhibition, filled with powerful
black and white portraits of male sex workers would be anything less
than provocative.
It was apparently only a coincidence
that the art installation he co-created with Kuona sculptor Meshak
Oiro, opened at the same moment when Africans across the region are
asking themselves questions about what they value and hold sacred and
what they see as anathema to African culture and tradition.
The
focal topic of Tahir and Meshak’s art installation addresses a subject
that forces the viewer to confront his/her own position on the larger,
deeper issue of what they personally ‘value.’
That’s
the same topic Tahir asked of all the men he interviewed before taking
their photograph and confirming they’d be happy to feature in the
current showcase of the photographer’s striking images and Meshak’s
matching masks.
Value: Seeing through the eyes of
someone else’ raises multiple issues, especially as Tahir didn’t just
photograph the men; he also insisted they hold onto the thing (or symbol
thereof) that best reflected what they cherish or value most highly.
NOT ALL VALUED ARE DIFFERENT
What
may be startling to some who visit Kuona over the next fortnight is
that what they value is hardly any different from what the ordinary
Kenyan (rich or poor) values as well.
Not all the items
valued are different. One mentions money and clutches a fist full of
shillings; another says he treasures education and holds an exercise
book to give its symbolic representation.
And several showed how much they love their cell phone.
“To
me, I think the cell phone symbolises communication and the desire for
friendship and connectedness with others,” said Tahir whose ‘take’ on
the cell phone was quite different from that of another viewer who was
present at Kuona last Thursday’s Opening Night.
Tahir Karmali with his photos of male sex-workers. photo by margaretta
“The cell phone is essential for a sex worker’s business, especially as most of his clients don’t want to be seen at night in Nairobi’s CBD. Instead, they prefer calling the sex-worker of choice and designating a rendezvous point,” said the viewer who preferred to remain anonymous.
“The cell phone is essential for a sex worker’s business, especially as most of his clients don’t want to be seen at night in Nairobi’s CBD. Instead, they prefer calling the sex-worker of choice and designating a rendezvous point,” said the viewer who preferred to remain anonymous.
It
was indeed touching to see one sex worker holding on to a keyboard
because he’s studying music and dreams of one day becoming a
professional musician.
For his part, Meshak welded
together same-size diamond shaped metallic ‘masks’ which hang
gratuitously from Kuona’s ceiling. Each is unique and distinct from the
other in design, much like each male sex-worker.
The
masks enhance the aesthetic value of the installation, but they also
symbolize the idea that almost everyone wears a mask to conceal their
true feelings.
Meshak Oiro, scrap metal sculptor created masks to go with Tahir's photography. Pix by Margaretta
The Star’s Managing Director William Pike attended the Kuona opening last Thursday night, and placed his own valuation on the show.
The Star’s Managing Director William Pike attended the Kuona opening last Thursday night, and placed his own valuation on the show.
“The exhibition could easily
go straight to London or New York and be very well received,” said the
Briton who was born in Southern Rhodesia (Now Zimbabwe).
His
view is shared by others, not only because of its timeliness, but also
because of the philosophical and social, as well as economic,
implications of the images.
What’s more, it was Tahir’s
intention all along to highlight what’s of value to a marginalized
group of people, like male sex-workers - be they gay or transsexual.
Meanwhile,
the Circle Art Agency’s showcase of more than 40 works of art by
contemporary mainly Kenyan artists was almost as stunning as CAA’s
recent East African Art Auction.
Held in an
‘unoccupied’ mansion just behind the Zen Garden restaurant, the
exhibition left one in no doubt that CAA is a major player in the
Nairobi art scene and one to watch since it strategically arranges art
shows that benefit not only the artists and the audiences but themselves
as well.
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