Artist Talks

A conversation between Xenson and Margaret Nagawa, questioning and discussing the themes in Xenson's work. Margaret Nagawa is a PhD candidate in Art History at Emory University. She examines monumental representations of the human body and their meanings at the intersection of sculpture and poetry, focusing on Uganda. Her scholarship draws on a range of sources, from archival research and oral histories to object-based study and participatory observation. Nagawa conducts research in Eastern Africa, the UK, and the USA to account for change and continuity across decades of sculpture’s dialogue with other arts, particularly poetry in its oral, written, and performed forms. In a recently curated traveling exhibition and book, Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection (Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023), Nagawa traces representations of the body in works exploring themes of power and belonging through the presence or absence of the human form. She holds a Masters in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and a BA with First Class Honors in Fine Arts from the Margaret Trowell School of Fine and Industrial Arts, Makerere University.

This conversation between the NCAI Curator, Don Handa and Neo Musangi a queer feminist living in Olkejuado, Kenya. Neo works in art and academia; is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Art, Design and Social Research (CAD+SR), a founding member of the Black Planetary Futures Collective, and teaches Gender Studies at St. Lawrence and American University. The conversation takes place in the context of The Long Way Home, a retrospective of Chelenge Van Rampelberg.

In this conversation, Chelenge and Hagi reflect on Chelenge's childhood in Kericho, Kenya, and explore how her upbringing influenced her artistic practice. They also delve into questions of motherhood, faith, and religion, which are central to Chelenge's work. This conversation takes place in the context of 'The Long Way Home', Chelenge's retrospective exhibition at NCAI. Fatima Hagi is a writer, workshop facilitator, and creative communications specialist. She co-authored the book Resistance - Voices of Exiled Writers, published by Palewell Press. Fatima is currently working on her debut poetry collection and a children's book series while raising an adorable baby boy.

This is a conversation between Morris Foit, whose work featured in the Common Ground exhibition at NCAI, and fellow sculptor, Gakunju Kaigwa. This conversation traces Foit’s artistic journey, giving insights into his life and practice, and his perspective on the changes in Kenya's arts and culture landscape through the years. Filmed by Densu Moseti ©NCAI

‘War’ is a conversation about conflict, art, and the challenges of working in times of civil unrest. We are joined by Heri Dono, Peterson Kamwathi, Doris Salcedo and Jonathan Powell. The conversation is moderated by Michael Armitage. ‘The Border’ was part of NCAI's exhibition ‘Common Ground’. It is a large-scale drawing in charcoal, completed in 2012. The work was completed as a response to Operation Linda Nchi, a military intervention in Somalia launched by the Government of Kenya to create a buffer between the civil unrest in Somalia and the northern border between Kenya and Somalia.

This is an artists' conversation with Elias Mung'ora and Paul Njihia, whose work were featured in the 'Common Ground' exhibition, alongside writer and filmmaker Ngwatilo Mawiyoo both who have their work featuring in the exhibition. The three artists will speak about their interest in shared social spaces as it informs their practices, with referece to the works included in the exhibition. Film by Densu Moseti ©NCAI

In 2014 Ketebul Music released Retracing Kenya's Songs of Protest, a compilation and publication that celebrates how music has played a crucial role in bringing about social change, throughout Kenya's history. In this conversation, Tabu Osusa, Dr Priscilla Gitonga, and Wairimũ Nduba speak about the transformations that have taken place in Kenya's music as the country has moved through different political periods.

Taking place within the context of the ongoing KASPALE exhibition, the conversation between Annie E. Coombes and Syowia Kyambi will unpack performance as a strategy and the use of the archive in Kyambi's practice, paying attention to questions of site-specificity as it relates to place, and the body; time and temporality; and memory and remembrance. Making reference to works featured in the exhibition, as well to earlier works by the artist, they will explore the multiplicity of methodologies in Kyambi’s practice. Annie E. Coombes is Professor Emerita of Material and Visual Culture in the Department of History of Art and Founding Director of the Peltz Gallery at Birkbeck, University of London. Coombes’ research focuses on colonial histories, their legacies in the present and the tensions involved in memorialising such violent histories in the public domain (in Britain, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria). Her award-winning books include: Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England (Yale 1994) and History After Apartheid: Visual Culture and Public Memory in a Democratic South Africa (Duke 2003). In 2014 she published Managing Heritage, Making Peace: History, Identity and Memory in Contemporary Kenya, (co-written with Lotte Hughes and Karega Munene). Coombes has always written for contemporary artists, particularly women, whose practice expands our understanding of the epistemic and actual violence of colonialism and its affect for example, Sonia Boyce ; Joy Gregory; Syowia Kyambi ; Senzeni Marasela ; Lisa Reihana ; Tracey Rose; Berni Searle; Penny Siopis; and Carrie Mae Weems. ©NCAI