MyWeku

As part of the Kenya Series, we met up with Cyrus Kabiru, a young artist who takes his art very seriously. He started making wire goggles when he was three years old, because they were too poor to afford a pair. Today he is an up and coming visual artist, and the wire goggles still form an integral part of his art.

Cyrus makes his sculptures and goggles almost exclusively from junk and found stuff. Growing up in the slums, he tells Myweku, he used to see a lot of junk and that is why it such a major part of his art. No doubt, there are a lot of ‘junk’ artists out there; most are probably more accomplished than Cyrus. Nonetheless, there is innocence in the way he uses junk. His bottle-cap sculptures of birds are so simple, almost child like, giving them effortless, sublime quality that cannot be faked.

He likes to walk around, picking junk which he uses to make his art. He also gets inspiration from these walks, by observing everything around him. “I am inspired by walking, when I walk, I get crazy things in my head…I am inspired by many things, maybe matatus… when I walk, I get things like bolts, bottle tops and wire”.

The exciting thing about his art, according to Cyrus is that it’s funny, “they are fun…you can look at it and start laughing yourself…”

Cyrus is a practicing artist in a region whose art market is only just emerging. Most artists in the region do art to service the expatriate market; paintings of bush landscapes and sculptures of slender Maasai morans. However, as an artist, he is going out on a limb by passionately sticking to art that most expresses his roots and reflects his environment.

His work is innovative and profoundly creative. However, what I like most about this young artist’s art is his use of media that lies all around him- junk; most artist complain about how expensive media like paint and canvas are. Not Cyrus, your trash, is his art!

See Related Articles:

Kenya Series: Part 1 - Jua Kali

Kenya Series: Part 3 – Adopt-a-tree