This solo exhibition by Syowia Kyambi includes a site-specific multi-media installation, photo-based works, video works, and sculptures from 2019-2023.
Kaspale is a solo exhibition by Syowia Kyambi (b. 1979, Nairobi). Kaspale is a trickster character created by Kyambi to intervene in situations where the burden of often violent histories has rendered them difficult to articulate and engage with. This body of work, which began in 2018 with research into the history of the Amani Research Station in Usambara, Tanzania and the archives of the MARKK Museum, has expanded into a series of encounters and interventions in which Kaspale shuttles back and forth in time and space, appearing in real and imagined spaces, always with a mind to speak and act where speech and action are otherwise curtailed.
Drawn from the ongoing Kaspale project, the works in the exhibition include a site-specific multi-media installation, photo-based works, video works, and sculptures that have been created from 2019- 2023. It is the first showing of Kaspale in Nairobi at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute and runs until 30th June 2023.
Installation shoot at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute. Work by Syowia Kyambi, Kaspale’s Play-ground, Multiple channel video installation / performance, 2023. Photo by Kibe Wangunyu
Installation shoot at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute. Work by Syowia Kyambi, Kaspale’s Play-ground, Multiple channel video installation / performance, 2023. Photo by Kibe Wangunyu
Installation shoot at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute. Work by Syowia Kyambi, Kaspale’s Play-ground, Multiple channel video installation / performance, 2023. Photo by Kibe Wangunyu
Installation shoot at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute. Work by Syowia Kyambi, Kaspale’s Play-ground, Multiple channel video installation / performance, 2023. Photo by Kibe Wangunyu
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![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-320x200.png)
![(clockwise) Manyaku Mashilo, Passage to Prayer (detail), 2023. Credit: Hayden Phipps & Southern Guild Archives. Courtesy of the artist; Tatenda Chidora, Self isolation II, 2021. Ilford Gold fibre Pearl 290gsm, 102cm x 132cm. Courtesy of the artist; Anaïs Cheleux, Mas Maten, Guadeloupe, shot on digital camera, 2016. Courtesy of the artist; Glicéria Tupinambá, Manto tupinambá [Tupinambá Mantle], 2023. Courtesy of the artist. Foto: Glicéria Tupinambá; Elizabeth Catlett, African American, 2009, MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, © Elizabeth Catlett Family Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023, photo: Axel Schneider.](https://contemporaryand.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Bildschirmfoto-2024-12-19-um-21.08.13-480x300.png)
