James Muriuki

James Muriuki is a Nairobi-based artist specializing in photography and lens-based media. He is interested in transitioning societies in the Global South, the different knowledge systems occurring within the visual arts environments of these societies, and how these systems are woven into the social fabric. James uses materials and objects of personal or communal reference as visual elements and metaphorical symbols to illustrate human capacity. He tugs at the threads of the interdependence of circumstance in our turbulent social frameworks: the modern and the traditional; the spontaneous and the customary; the desirable and the aspirational. He investigates and experiments with the potential of images as media and the processes of making art: photography and motion; video and sound, treating them ultimately as reservoirs of knowledge and channels of communication. James’ works have been exhibited in several institutions, are collected globally, and have been included in many publications. He has collaborated with other artists, attended residencies and workshops in different countries, and is a grant recipient. He has worked as a designer and as a gallery manager and curator of a renowned Nairobi Art Institution before venturing off into private practice in 2011. He has carried out many photographic commissions in various capacities – from training photographers to developing and curating photography exhibitions, including Frontiers of the Present: Exploring New Ideas in Photography, Nairobi; Passing It On: Inventorying Living Heritage in Africa, Windhoek; and co-curating In Memorium and Constructions as part of the collective ‘3Collect’ of which he was a founding member. He was central in the publication of the art magazine ‘Msanii,’ the artist book ‘Layers,’ and contributed to the UNESCO publication ‘Documenting Living Heritage.’ He is an alumnus of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre of Curatorial Leadership, Fellowship and Training.

 

 

Point of Contact

NAIROBI

In my search for what is true to me and gives meaning to my very presence, the relationship between my physical environment and myself has come to the fore. I have cared about my self-perception, and how this manifests and changes in every moment of my awareness of it, and no doubt this extends to my physical environment and interactions. They are reflections that I imagine many people have and will continue to have for as long as we relate and think about self-awareness. Similarly, the only way I am able to express meaning beyond my mind is through things I make and things I say, ideally through objects and actions that others will see, smell, taste, hear, and touch. I feel that I have to create and give my senses meaning. Otherwise, they are just physical sensory receptions and projections. Most importantly, the meanings are translations that I create in my mind based on my past experiences, my present, and my future aspirations. Tactile activities excite me, as more and more, we are delegating many of our undertakings to ‘experts’ and we are left to focus on what we are ‘experts’ of. In this sense, buildings and architectural structures are the most conspicuous, widespread, and present physical manifestation of making – almost all of us use these structures. Also, the human need and capacity to express oneself and the collective have sparked my interest in this area, partly because I have always wanted to be part of the building process. I have been documenting architectural works and buildings for some years now – a process that transitioned to include thinking about, looking at, and photographing local materials that form the basics of most architectural structures in the city where I live, Nairobi. I felt like there was a need for me to investigate the most basic ‘ingredients’ that the physical city of Nairobi, and no doubt other cities too, have used to create, fulfill, and express a variety of traits that end up contributing to the identity of a city and its people. In the same journey of discovery, I came to appreciate that material itself has no more meaning than what we appropriate, either individually or collectively. It is we, the humans, who have always given and will continue to give meaning (and use) to material that we translate into objects. These objects are primarily utilitarian but are also an expression of ourselves through their newly created form and function. The people involved in the construction of this transition and contributing to the new meanings are at the very center of the process. They have ranged from untrained makers and shapers to ‘expert’ consultants, visionaries, and dreamers, as well as adjudicators of the process.

Builders are often pigeonholed into the lowest level of the socio-economic hierarchy in the construction industry,  despite the psychological affiliations that these hierarchies inevitably develop. In the earlier days of this ongoing project, when visiting the site at which I took these photographs, I could see there was a lot of hesitation for many to be photographed or identified in the photographs. Through my subsequent conversations with them, I learned that their hesitation was associated with their job not being something they wanted to define them. It had something to do with the assumed hierarchy and the ‘judgment’ that they may be apportioned – while they would rather be identified with the finished structure – despite  the fact that they were the ones who spent most of their physical (and no doubt emotional) self, putting it together. The finished structure is something they would love to be identified with, because it assumes and expresses certain aspects of achievement, no doubt a place that many of them will not be able to afford to visit. A place for others to come and see, smell, taste, hear, and touch.

James Muriuki | 2020