Opened August 15 at The African Arts Trust, the Forms of Fray showcase presents distinct explorations of the intimate interaction between memory and materiality.
Anita Kavochy engages with everyday packaging, such as food and baby products, as her medium, weaving her experiences of motherhood into her art.
By incorporating materials from the home environment, she merges her journey as a mother with her craft.
“I want to show viewers my experiences as a mother and an artist,” she says.
Her newest installation, Celebration of Life I, is a mixed-media piece created on a recycled carpet.
Symbolising a eulogy, Kavochy chose an old carpet because she sees it as a household object that carries family memory.
Her series Tuko Ndani Boma features monoprints with acrylic paint on paper. Here, she uses lace to cover her subjects’ faces, resembling a net coffin veil. The series references a mourning period—the night before burial—when family and friends gather at a homestead.
In Drifter of the Oceans, a painting series suspended from the gallery ceiling, she used acrylics and sawdust on discarded newspapers, which themselves act as carriers of public memory.
The series pays tribute to Lamu, a place that once helped her shape her artistic style. Kavochy explains that the work also reflects the contrast between her time on the coast and her return to Kibera.
Uganda-based artists Liz Kobusinge and Darlyne Komukama collaborated on In the Midst, a sound and video installation accompanied by etchings on bark cloth and lint papers. Liz hand-crafted the bark cloth and lint paper, and together they printed images onto the material.
The video projection illuminated the etched works, which hung decoratively from the ceiling.
At the gallery entrance, visitors encountered Jonathan Fraser’s delicate paintings, coloured pencil on watercolour paper, adding another dimension to the exhibition.
Co-curator E.N. Mirembe explains that her fascination with paper comes from her love of writing and reading, which inspired her to make it the exhibition’s central theme.
“I started by thinking about the materials I wanted. I thought about my love for paper, and then I selected artists who work with the medium,” she says.
She continues: “It’s about how artists who work with paper push the boundaries of the medium, exploring the different ways it can be used.”
Curated by E.N. Mirembe alongside Brian Muraya, Forms of Fray runs at The African Arts Trust until October 18.