Section1: Technical
space you had to present at least three pieces of your work to demonstrate that you were an artist and that you had something to show us. You hadn’ t just seen a sign and walked in; there was to be some sort of minimal standard.
So we assembled a number of folders with samples of people’ s work and then we had a big reveal- the day when we had to look at the work and decide who would be the lucky artists- and we had maybe 25 different artists’ work. I remember going through it with some of the committee, Ogira and Meek, finding much of it really bad, but they argued that if the work was bad then the guy really needed to be given a place because he really needed our help.
I’ m pretty sure that we only did that once, and after that the idea was basically to bring three pieces of your work and demonstrate that you had made some earlier commitments to making art and that’ s it, that’ s the only criterion that we are going to use; you just have to have something that says that you did not invent yourself as an artist this morning.
Danda: And how did people know about you? Rob: It was word of mouth. But we worked hard those days to try and get stories in the
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Nation and the Standard and we were committed to build a really good press file. There was no art criticism then, there was no analysis; it was just description.
We were doing it because we had made promises to commercial companies- the only people we had backing us then were mainly commercial companies and they wanted newspaper coverage. So I worked really hard and spent a lot of time on the phone trying to persuade editors that there was a great story coming, and that they really needed to put it in the paper- and we were relatively successful at it and we got quite a lot of coverage.
At that same time, Wendy was still running the museum art gallery though she was absolutely part and parcel of Kuona. We were really collaborating. As Kuona grew, more and more artists began to make use of the space and there was a tighter relationship between the gallery and Kuona. Slowly but surely we expanded and took over another room here and there in the building and a little veranda that adjoined the room with the door that was locked which we opened up. We cleared the old garage at the back which was a big breakthrough- there were snakes in there, it was terrifying. When we opened it up, Ogira and other people started to work from there full time.
Danda: Who were the artists that you remember clearly from those early days who came in and started working with you? Rob: Simon Muriithi was very much involved; he was really helpful. He was very much on the scene as a‘ doing’ guy. Soi [ Michael ] arrived early on but I can’ t remember exactly when. Thom [ Ogonga ] came quite a bit after that. Meek [ Gichugu ] left and went to France and hasn’ t really come back. Kevin Oduor definitely came early on. Elijah Ogira for a long time based himself in one of the garages and then he moved on.
The garage just filled up with people’ s work. It’ s a nightmare- you know, it was supposed to be a studio space and it became just a store for abandoned sculptures.
Danda: Yes, we know quite a lot about that, it seems to happen everywhere we go. Rob: Exactly, no one wants to give it away because there’ s that remote possibility that it might still sell.
Danda: When did jimmy [ Ogonga ] come? Rob: The first time I clearly remember Jimmy was for the first Wasanii which was’ 97 I think. Rob: Up until the first Wasanii, we were living on thin air. We had a little bit of money from here and there, maybe 100,000 shillings, and