stick frames beside the path, to draw attention to the marvelous views in her Challenge to the Pictorial.
Some artists made more uncomfortable works. Anthony Okello’ s Forest Massacre was composed of hanging( or perhaps hanged?) figures. Life size stick people, draped in hessian rags and daubed in red mud, haunted the trees. Beatrice Njoroge’ s Camouflage seemed, at first sight, to be quite abstract: an enormous cone woven of sticks. When she explained that it was based on the structures woven in her grandmother’ s village, to hide the children from soldiers, the forest at once seemed more ominous. Installations in the shape of graves were another somber reminder of issues dividing Kenyans. Caroline Mbirua’ s Fallen Tree Man also hinted at disaster. Thom Ogonga’ s 2010, a ravaged field of tree stumps, made timeous comment on the environment. Samuel Githui used fire and smoke in a performance entitled Global Warning. Petersen Kamwathi inserted carved spikes into blunt sections of tree-trunk, creating a circle of beautiful yet dangerous-looking sculptures. His other work seemed much more playful and whimsical: large wooden hoops hung on long sticks in an open field. Yet they were dwarfed by the giant trees behind them, and seemed to hint at some sort of mismatch between mankind’ s size and grasp. Janet Ranson’ s work commented on the environment more humorously. Head In the Sand was a giant face, sunk to the nose in the ground,‘ refusing to think about the world’ s problems’.
Animals were included, too. Michael Soi conjured a bullish giraffe of sticks and sacking. Janet Ranson built a large forest‘ guardian’, Horton: a life-size elephant or mammoth, made of rammed earth and covered in living grass. Koko Kang’ oroti made a festive playground in honor of the local wildlife: Monkey Point.
Max buzzed around the forest at high speed, photographing the forest and the artists. She can be seen in everyone else’ s snapshots, climbing higher than the monkeys to get a better view.
Our day trip to a game park was one of the highlights of the workshop. Spectacular mountain scenery, wildly bumpy roads, glimpses of rural life and a wealth of game- all seen from the comfort of the grooviest Nairobi taxi. We returned to Nairobi quite giddy, ready to work hard than ever on our forest installations.
The results of 2 weeks of feverish creativity in the forest were annotated and mapped for the Open Day. Hundreds of people walked the forest trail and engaged with the artists. Workshop participants acted as guides, and enjoyed chatting to the visitors. Ginou presented guests with mask necklaces made of leaves. It was wonderful to share such appreciation for art, from young and old. All too soon it was time for a farewell party, with DJ Max, and a last chance to dance with our new friends. Then it was time to fly home, to spend years digesting all that we’ d learnt at the workshop. section2: Discovery
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