Kawira Mwirichia

Last updated

Kawira Mwirichia
EducationBSc. Civil Engineering, University of Nairobi;
Known forArt, illustration curator
Website https://kalacompany.com/

Kawira Mwirichia (died 2020) [1] was a queer artist and curator from Kenya who lived in Athi River. She was a multi-disciplinary artist known internationally for her kangas along with more traditional fine arts mediums such as painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Contents

Early life and education

Kawira Mwirichia was born in 1986. She lived in Athi River, Kenya.[ citation needed ] She died and was laid to rest in November 2020. She received her Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Nairobi (Aug 2007 – Dec 2012). [2] Through the Astraea Commslab, Mwirichia took a course for online LGBTQI activism. Her formal art training came from graphic & web design courses at the Institute of Advanced Technology as well as Nairobi Institute of Business Studies.

Career

To Revolutionary Type Love

Kawira Mwirichia [3] aimed to create Kangas for all 196 countries of the world [4] [5] The design of each Kanga is inspired by that country's historical moments in their fight for LGBT rights. [5] As of 2017, 37 of Africa's 57 countries criminalize homosexual acts. [3]

Kangas are traditional East African cotton textiles with Swahili sayings on them. [3] [4] [6] One of the uses of Kangas is a part of marriage ceremony, where it is laid out on the ground to receive the bride and take her to the wedding, or receive and celebrate the wedded couple. [5]

"In Nairobi, Kenya, there are two different art scenes," artist and activist Kawira Mwirichia explained. "There is the so-called Masai market which draws on traditional crafts and tribal customs, and there is the contemporary art scene, of 'people who are experimenting with other ways of expression.' [5] To Revolutionary Type Love, creates a dialogue between these two creative worlds, as she used traditional textiles to create contemporary Art. [5]

The exhibitions are presented with work from other artists.

Lez Ka-lour!: A Lesbian KamaSutra Colouring Book

A ten-page colouring book of Lesbian KamaSutra positions by Kawira Mwirichia. [7]

Exhibitions

Related Research Articles

<i>Kama Sutra</i> Ancient Hindu text on erotic love

The Kama Sutra is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life. Attributed to Vātsyāyana, the Kama Sutra is neither exclusively nor predominantly a sex manual on sex positions, but rather was written as a guide to the art of living well, the nature of love, finding a life partner, maintaining one's love life, and other aspects pertaining to pleasure-oriented faculties of human life. It is a sutra-genre text with terse aphoristic verses that have survived into the modern era with different bhāṣyas. The text is a mix of prose and anustubh-meter poetry verses. The text acknowledges the Hindu concept of Purusharthas, and lists desire, sexuality, and emotional fulfillment as one of the proper goals of life. Its chapters discuss methods for courtship, training in the arts to be socially engaging, finding a partner, flirting, maintaining power in a married life, when and how to commit adultery, sexual positions, and other topics. The majority of the book is about the philosophy and theory of love, what triggers desire, what sustains it, and how and when it is good or bad.

<i>Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love</i> 1996 film

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love is a 1996 Indian historical erotic romance film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Mira Nair. The first portion of the film is based on "Utran", a short story in Urdu by the Indian writer Wajida Tabassum. The film takes its title from the ancient Indian text, the Kama Sutra. It stars Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choudhury, Ramon Tikaram, Rekha, and Indira Varma. The English-language film was produced by Indian, British, German and Japanese studios.

Hindu views of homosexuality and LGBT issues more generally are diverse, and different Hindu groups have distinct views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Kenya</span> Traditions and trends associated with Kenya

The culture of Kenya consists of multiple traditions and trends. Kenya has no single prominent culture that identifies it. Its cultural heritage and modern expressions of culture instead consist of various cultures, shaped and practiced by the country's different communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanga (garment)</span> Printed cotton fabric worn in East Africa

The kanga is a colourful fabric similar to kitenge, but lighter, worn by women and occasionally by men throughout the African Great Lakes region. It is a piece of printed cotton fabric, about 1.5 m by 1 m, often with a border along all four sides, and a central part (mji) which differs in design from the borders. They are sold in pairs, which can then be cut and hemmed to be used as a set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanna Owiyo</span> Kenyan singer

Suzanna (Suzzana) Owíyo is a Kenyan singer.

Joan E. Biren or JEB is an American feminist photographer and film-maker, who dramatizes the lives of LGBT people in contexts that range from healthcare and hurricane relief to Womyn’s Music and anti-racism. For portraits, she encourages sitters to act as her “muse”, rather than her “subject”. Biren was a member of The Furies Collective, a short-lived but influential lesbian commune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zanele Muholi</span> South African artist and visual activist (born 1972)

Zanele Muholi is a South African artist and visual activist working in photography, video, and installation. Muholi's work focuses on race, gender and sexuality with a body of work that dates back to the early 2000's, documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa's Black lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex communities. Muholi is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, explaining that "I'm just human".

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.

Harmony Hammond is an American artist, activist, curator, and writer. She was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970s New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT history in India</span>

The LGBTQ community has a long recorded history in Ancient India due to the prevalence of the accepting Hindu spiritual traditions and cultures across the subcontinent, with a turbulent period following Islamic and European colonialism that introduced homophobic and transphobic laws, thus criminalizing homosexuality and transsexuality. In the 21st century following independence, there has been a significant amount of progress made on liberalizing LGBTQ laws and reversing the homophobia and transphobia of the previous colonial era.

Sharon Hayes is an American multimedia artist. She came to prominence as an artist and an activist during the East Village scene in the early '90s. She primarily works with video, installation, and performance as her medium. Using multimedia, she "appropriates, rearranges, and remixes in order to revitalize spirits of dissent". Hayes's work addresses themes such as romantic love, activism, queer theory, and politics. She incorporates texts from found speeches, recordings, songs, letters, and her own writing into her practice that she describes as “a series of performatives rather than performance.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allyson Mitchell</span>

Allyson Mitchell is a Toronto-based maximalist artist, working predominantly in sculpture, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to trouble contemporary representations of women, sexuality and the body largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. Throughout her career, Mitchell has critiqued socio-historical phobias of femininity, feminine bodies and colonial histories, as well as ventured into topics of consumption under capitalism, queer feelings, queer love, fat being, fatphobia, genital fears and cultural practices. Her work is rooted in a Deep Lez methodology, which merges lesbian feminism with contemporary queer politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Wanjiru</span> Kenyan singer

Evelyn Wanjiru Agundabweni is a Kenyan gospel singer, worship leader, music director, songwriter, hostess of the annual event "Praise Atmosphere" and co-founder of Bwenieve production. She is best known for her hit songs "Mungu Mkuu", "Celebrate", "Jehovah Elohim", "Waweza," "Hossana," "Nikufahamu" and "Tulia."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Turner</span>

Kay Turner is an artist and scholar working across disciplines including performance, writing, music, exhibition curation, and public and academic folklore. She is noted for her feminist writings and performances on subjects such as women’s home altars, fairy tale witches, and historical goddess figures. She co-founded “Girls in the Nose,” a lesbian feminist rock punk band that anticipated riot grrl.

Beatrice Wanjiku, is a Kenyan visual and abstract artist, who practices independently in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

Queer art, also known as LGBT+ art or queer aesthetics, broadly refers to modern and contemporary visual art practices that draw on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and various non-heterosexual, non-cisgender imagery and issues. While by definition there can be no singular "queer art", contemporary artists who identify their practices as queer often call upon "utopian and dystopian alternatives to the ordinary, adopt outlaw stances, embrace criminality and opacity, and forge unprecedented kinships and relationships." Queer art is also occasionally very much about sex and the embracing of unauthorised desires.

Kama La Mackerel is a Mauritian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, activist, translator, and community organizer who resides in Montreal, Quebec. Their artistic practice moves between theatre, dance, spoken word and written poetry, watercolours, photography, performance, sculpture and installation. Working across multiple disciplines, La Mackerel's work explores their identity as a trans femme of colour who reaches back beyond the immediate constraints of the colonial circumstances of their life to the spiritual ancestral lineages of queer femmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nairobi Gallery</span> Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya

The Nairobi Gallery is an art gallery located an at the edge of the Nairobi central business district. The gallery is dedicated to showcasing African art.

Kaloki Nyamai is a Kenyan based multidisciplinary painter and sculptor whose practice combines material investigation with a wide-reaching exploration of subject matter.

References

  1. "A Bright Light Dimmed Too Soon: Celebrating Queer Activist Kawira Mwirichia". 5 November 2020.
  2. "Kawira Mwirichia". The Dots.
  3. 1 2 3 Lichtenstein, Amanda (18 August 2017). "A Kenyan Artist Designs Revolutionary 'Kanga' Celebrating Queer Love Around the World · Global Voices". Global Voices. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Championne et gagnante diversité: découvrez l'artiste Kawira Mwirichia et ses khangas engagés". OWDIN (in French). 18 September 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "I have seen my beauty. I have been shown my beauty". WePresent. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  6. Wilfried, EK (28 December 2017). "A la découverte de l'artiste Kawira Mwirichia et de ses Khangas engagées – WYAT Magazine". Wyat-mag.com (in French). Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  7. Mwirichia, Ms Kawira (5 December 2015). Lez Ka-lour!: A Lesbian KamaSutra Colouring Book. ASIN   151965278X.
  8. Michael, Soi (10 November 2017). 27 (PDF) (vol 1 No. 1 ed.). Nairobi: National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
  9. 1 2 "Kawira Mwirichia – Medienwissenschaften BS". mewi.hbk-bs.de (in German). Archived from the original on 16 October 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2018.