At Munyu Space, painter Sharon Kerubo Gekonge’s solo exhibition and installation, Myth of Man, draws viewers into a surreal world where penguins take on human forms.
Running from September 26 to October 7, the exhibition presents 15 paintings and one large-scale installation that question humanity’s dominance over other living beings.
Gekonge explains that the title was inspired by the concept she’s been exploring for the last four years, the belief that humans are somehow superior to animals and plants.
Before this exploration, she was doing wildlife drawings and then moved into painting, where she began to develop this theme in a surreal style.
Gekonge dissects the word ‘myth’ by showing the façade that she sees in human beings.
For her, this exhibition represents the way people move through the world with self-importance, even forgetting they exist alongside something more expansive.
This lens allows her to explore the human condition through animal imagery.
She uses irony and metaphor; for example, in Dance of Life, a chessboard floor is the stage for penguin-human figures to portray the games people play within social structures.
Another piece, Snakes and Ladders, takes inspiration from the childhood game, reflecting on how humans are put through life’s challenges from an early age, navigating uncertainty.
“I use metaphors to show how attuned we are to certain systems, even when we don’t realise it. The ladders in Snakes and Ladders represent uncertainty,” she says.
Gekonge segmented the exhibition works into two.
One-half is personal and explores reflections on her own experiences and feelings. The other half zooms out to examine the systems and animalistic tendencies of the society.
The penguin head with a human body is a repeating element in her works.
Initially, the penguin was a self-portrait, sparked by a comment from her sister who once told her that she walked like a bird.
It grew into a metaphor in her paintings.
When she does self-portraits as a penguin, it is about protecting herself as she dives into personal feelings.