|
The One Off Sculpture Garden at Rosslyn Lone Tree is a work in progress which will doubtless remain so always, though now more than ever. It is decidedly unfinished and work on its basic construction is expected to continue for another six months or so. We beg your indulgence. Begun in April 2019, the garden was born of a desire to supply a ‘salad bowl’ for our visiting Colobus Monkey troop. The subsequent decision to plant 133 indigenous trees and shrubs to encourage birds, bees and butterflies necessitated the felling of 60 Eucalyptus trees. Only a few remnant Eucalyptus trees remain. The final piece in the puzzle came in the form of a financial windfall from environmental enthusiast and art collector, Vivien Mather. And the project to plant a garden to show sculpture took flight. Next the team suggested the idea of an inaugural exhibition to Marc Van Rampelberg. Aside from being a loyal friend and supporter of One Off, Marc has a history of collecting art in Kenya dating back to the 80s. At the time he was the in-house curator and long-term gallery partner of Ruth Schaffner, the owner of Gallery Watatu which was the leading gallery in its day. This gave him access to extensive collectables and he was able to acquire some of the most significant works produced in Kenya. Of particular importance are his works sculpted by Samuel Wanjau Sr., which we saw as being essential for any sculptural review. It goes without saying that these are unobtainable now, the artist being deceased. It became evident that any serious show of sculpture from the region would require a number of loaned works from Marc’s collection. Marc also brought his superb taste, design skills, attention to detail and spatial awareness to the project. He was a shoe-in for the task of curator for our first ever sculptural review in the new garden. Thom Ogonga was asked to contextualize the historical event. In conversation with Marc and Thom we deduced that an exhibition, purely of sculpture on this scale, has never been embarked upon in the region. Marc’s curatorial ethos was to try to be as inclusive as possible and to push the ‘sculptural envelope’ as wide as possible. To this end, the exhibition encompassed traditional forms in wood, stone and metal but it also included ‘the human figure as object’ in the form of a mime artist. It included glass, paper and mosaic. It looked at some two-dimensional works as three-dimensional sculptures. It attempted to include the most significant sculptors working in Kenya today and it tried to reach back to their influences and origins. It also displayed works by some younger artists or less well-known players. Naturally many of the works were not weather proof, so the curatorial exercise extended far beyond the garden and into all the gallery spaces at both the main exhibition venue and in our pop-up space at Rosslyn Riviera (now closed). Certainly, there were some significant omissions in our offering, which we hope to address as we fine-tune our reviews in the future. As Kenyan art becomes increasingly sought after in the international markets, our sculptors have an increasing number of commitments, disallowing them from exhibiting locally. Two exceptions are Peterson Kamwathi and Cyrus Kabiru, who have both shown with the best of the best internationally but who remain firm in their commitment to continue to honour their home audience and to remember their roots. Special thanks to them and to all the other artists who fall into this category. The One Off Sculpture Garden will always grow and change. We hope you will drop by to enjoy it and will return often to absorb the atmosphere and the sculptures in the ever-altering garden.
A missing link in the One Off story is that with the success of the creation of the stable annex, we decided to go all out and convert the whole stable. The decision was informed by the pressing need for extra exhibition space and simultaneously, all our equine family developed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to varying degrees. Our vets recommended that all the horses and donkeys immediately be moved to a very open environment and we quickly cobbled together new stables on our arena. Many people look shocked and worried about 'what happened to the horses' but as you see from the photographic evidence, they don't seem resentful about the downgrade in accommodation. Indeed, Cooper's Creek and Zweli are coming up for 28 years old and CariBlanco is keeping up with them. We pray daily for their continued well-being. The completed stable conversion with Lisa Milroy's beautiful exhibition 'Handmade'. Our opening exhibition on 7th April 2018, was 'Handmade' by super-star artist Lisa Milroy. Lisa hails from London and we were enormously fortunate to have her exhibit with us. At the time she was the graduate painting instructor at The Slade, one of Britain's most prestigious art schools. She has subsequently had her work accepted into the collection of the Tate Modern. We could hardly hope for a more eminent opening artist.
 Four works by Peter Muinde Sunday morning is normally the day of choice for us to change out our revolving exhibition at Air Kenya. We prepare everything in advance,including all the price tags and load the pick-up at 6.45am. I find that if I leave Rosslyn by 7am on a Sunday it only takes 25 minutes to do what can be a two to three hour trip to Wilson Airport on a week day. We can then re-hang the show and be back in time to open the gallery at Lone Tree by 11am. Last Sunday was the day!  "Cogs of a system series" by Peter Ngugi, "Untitled" by Hassan Fadul and "Bold" by Ngene Mwaura I have included an abstract work from Hassan Fadul (Sudan), two works from Ssali Yusuf (Uganda) and one from Anwar Sadat (Uganda) and finally, the beautiful and intricate mixed media piece on board from Ngene Mwarura who is Kenyan but resides in the USA. In all, a very eclectic presentation but one which I hope will appeal to a very wide audience.  Featuring "Waiting Until" which hangs above "Attend to women", both by Ssali Yusuf I have included an abstract work from Hassan Fadul (Sudan), two works from Ssali Yusuf (Uganda) and one from Anwar Sadat (Uganda) and finally, the beautiful and intricate mixed media piece on board from Ngene Mwarura who is Kenyan but resides in the USA. In all, a very eclectic presentation but one which I hope will appeal to a very wide audience.  Peter Ngugi's "Status Quo series", "Untitled" by Hassan Fadul and "Bold" by Ngene Mwaura Please give us your feed-back if you pass through the lounge to catch an Air Kenya flight.
These two photographs were taken a number of months ago from the window in front of my desk at the gallery. We have been the exceptionally lucky hosts of a little family of five Colobus monkeys for a number of years. First there was one and then very quickly there were two. After that we seem to have had a tiny addition to the family at regular intervals. The Colobus family are a delight to have on our property not least because they are outstanding night guards; they roar if anyone passes near their 'sleeping tree'. They are also priceless entertainers, putting on mini acrobatic displays for visitors and inevitably swinging down to the Eucalyptus trees to check out any clients visiting the gallery.
And then almost the moment I took these photographs, they disappeared. I became increasingly worried that with all the ongoing development around us, they had become inconvenient for someone, but then two weeks ago a single male Colobus started to make regular visits to our trees and this amounted to even bigger worry for us. We wondered if he was somehow the sole survivor of some nasty incident? What on earth could have happened to 'our family'? Then yesterday, the perfect Christmas gift; I looked into the trees at dawn and the whole family were diving from branch to branch. What a joy to have everyone back! |
Copyright © 2020 One Off Contemporary Art Gallery. All Rights Reserved.