Transformations: Samuel Githui

Circle Art Gallery, 4 July – 20 July 2018

Inspired by a performance by the dancer, Kefa Oiro, the Transformations series traces the human body, transformed as it moves into, and out of light. The drawings follow the body through various stages of motion, between flight and rest. Bending, and swaying, leaping or crawling, alternately limp and taut, the ‘dancer’ in Githui’s drawings is brought in and out of sight, at times coming into full view and elsewhere reduced to leave only the most essential of marks.

Working primarily in black and white, Githui’s works intermingle the tangible and intangible, the known and unknown worlds. Furthermore, he presents the in-between area as an alternative to either extreme, as a space of infinite possibility, where magic can happen. With his dancer, Githui invites you to dream.

Born in 1973, Samuel Githui has been drawing from a young age, since he was about five or six years old. He has always paid close attention to his surroundings, and his impressions of his the spaces, people, and events around him are the material for his artwork. Githui relies on his observation of typical events to investigate societal shifts, politics, and the lives of people working to make a place for themselves in a world that does not always work in their favour.