By HAPPY NGUGI

Memories get stuck in one’s mind, right from one’s childhood to adult years.

Before moving forward, however, one must perhaps first look back. Then, the history would break off.

Moments which define a person can perhaps be counted on one’s fingers. Sometimes, these are strong enough to elicit smells, even from days long gone: a favourite childhood meal, playing outside during rainy days, a lover’s perfume, a trip to the village.

Most artworks tell stories as artists strive to talk to their audiences.

To recapture his past journeys, and those of us all, Mbuthia Maina has transformed old structures, soil and cow dung into beautiful art.

BACK AGAIN

Ten years after Goethe Institute, Nairobi, first hosted his works, he is back again in an exhibition dubbed In Memorium. It is pulling art lovers. He calls his method "installation technique."

He said: "You get into this installation business and then you find like you are trying to find your niche. Then you think of the kind of materials to use. And then you find yourself using soil. I decided long ago to settle on soil, and other things, like cow dung and ash, which people use to build their houses."

Before the exhibition opened on March 3, 2012, Maina had spent sleepless nights searching for and ferrying raw materials to the exhibition hall. The result was an unusual display of environmental conservation in line with the changing times.

The artist fused the old with the new, resulting in complex, yet simple art.

"You use video, flash lights, then it reaches a point you think: eh, what’s the point? The point is you want to make an artwork. Sometimes because of demands of guys who say make this, make that... you get very complex. At some point you realise that it is not necessary."

Among his works is the Fresh Earth Grave— the living quarters reminiscent of 1980s rural Kenya. Supported by tree branches, sisal and old clothes, it has a plasma television set and wall hangings. Maina says the flickering images of fire on the TV reminds him of his childhood. Having been raised by his grandmother, Loise (now deceased), the hut he called home was filled with warmth, love, laughter and stories.

The wall hangings, on the other hand, have photographs of Maina’s earlier artworks: paintings and digital photographs from Loise in Motion, an exhibition he hosted soon after his grandmother’s death.

Next to the Fresh Earth Grave is the second ‘grave’, which resembles a tunnel. It is brightly lit with flashing, coloured lights and is made of plywood. The inner walls are painted white and lined with random portraits from the obituaries pages. The outside is painted light green, something Maina says is "a grave error."

WESTERN CULTURE

Says he: "Africans love bright colours. In traditional Africa, we ‘celebrated’ death with white. However, times have changed since everyone is following the western culture of wearing black at burials. The ‘grave’ was supposed to be painted black outside to show the emptiness that the departed has left in society."

The artist also shows Kenya’s transformation from the 1980s through to the 2000s. Using paper, plastic and tins, he shows that one man’s rubbish is another’s pot of gold. He has put up a mabati (corrugated iron-sheet) wall with artistic hangings such as music CDs and chopped and burnt tree parts from the Ngong Forest.

Maina has also created a ‘floor rug’ from flattened egg trays, on which are glued old bottle caps, perfume bottles, pocket-size mirrors and other paraphernalia.

— Xinhua