When I talked with Nairobi-based artist Cyrus Kabiru last September, he was preparing for his first ever show outside Kenya and only just beginning to gain recognition in Europe for his environmentally-friendly series of wearable eyewear sculptures.
Now a TED Global Fellow 2012, Cyrus has come a long way since that interview and is currently set to lead a workshop in London on July 20, organised by the V22 Summer Club. An experimental activity "the outcome of which is not yet known", the workshop mainly seeks to explore how objects (and sculpture) can be transformed through interaction, naming and narration into new forms of social commentary.
It will begin in Deptford market, where the artist and resident of V22, Richard Parry, will act as guide to one of London's longest-standing markets. The market and its surrounding environs will be the site of collection for the objects to be used for the workshop which will take place at V22 in Bermondsey. Each participant, along with Richard and Cyrus will gather things to be used later in the workshop, the process of doing so providing the texture to a dialogue between, place, context and perception. Details on the content of the workshop are clearly scarce. Given Cyrus' innovative outlook and taking into consideration that the workshop coincides with his first ever visit to the UK, however, the exhibition has potential to be pretty special.
Cost: £14/ ticket, Maximum 15 participants
About V22 Summer Club:
54 days of collaborative, original and multi-discipline artist-led events taking place in the vast V22 Halls of Bermondsey, London. V22 Summer Club is designed as a delightfully flexible environment for audiences to use as suits them, whether to engage with the many live activities, screenings, performances and broadcasts, browse the independent record-label store or just pop down for a bite to eat and an organic cider, and relax in one of the many seating areas and soak up the atmosphere.
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About Cyrus Kabiru:
Kabiru is both a painter and a sculpture and has gained a lot of momentum most recently around his series of eyewear sculptures 'C-Stunners'. These signature sculptures are a series of wearable eyewear sculptures made from the detritus of modern life in Nairobi, each with its own specific story. They create transformational metaphors for the way Africa is perceived within and by the outside world, and the pieces appeal to a wide and varied audience as the work crosses boundaries between art, media and fashion, the artist himself writing about the work as though it were a brand.
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