Baraza

Category: Gorillas, elephants | Date: Jul 28 2008 | By: baraza

Many years ago I was called in my office at the Kenya Wildlife service and alerted to a truckload of elephants en-route to the airport. This sounded extremely suspicious and timely, we were preparing for the CITES conference in Nairobi and Kenya could not be be aiding in illegal trade of live elephants!

As I neared the roundabout there was a truck and coming out of it was a herd of elephants of all sizes, some were already all standing around on the grassy circle. Cars were moving at a snails pace as curious onlookers witnessed one of Kenya’s most renown artists, Kioko Mwitiki arranging a family of metal sculptured elephants.

Today the sight of this herd is one of the most memorable introductions to Kenya for visitors arriving at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

One of the ele’s

From a distance, the elephants look real but they are actually are made from scraps of junk metal scrap and other discarded items.

My friendship with Kioko started I found out that his life as a mechanic in Nakuru was transformed when he started to play with the scrap and a blow torch, to create the animals he loved to watch. A passerby bought his creatures and he made more, and he thought it was a great business until one day he saw his works going for astronomical prices in a shop window in Nairobi. He gave up the mechanics job and started life as an artist there and then. I was hugely impressed that he spends hours observing the animals he makes in order to capture their unique stance or behaviors. We commissioned him to create a menagerie of animals for the banquet at the start of the CITES conference, giving our event an amazing atmosphere - we had porcupines, giraffes, bushbabies, warthogs, and all manner of curious birds.

Today Kioko is world famous and sells his works globally, but despite the fame he’s still the cute guy that I met so many years ago. He does interesting pieces for conservation like this life sized whale named Mfalme (King in Kiswahili) for which he designed the frame, and local community members built the body using flip flops that had washed up on the Indian Ocean beach - thus supporting another ‘recycling art’ venture and raising awareenss about the dangers of wastes in the sea.

Here’s Mfalme under construction. He’s now at Haller Park in Mombasa where I used to work.

I visited Kioko at his house a couple of weeks ago to see if I could rent a gorilla for our “Looking for Miza” book launch - His garden is his show room and I wasn’t surprised to see the usual masses of animals. But at the entrance, on the driveway, stood a life sized metal Gorilla! Perfect. But not available. Turns out he was preparing to take a troop of gorillas to San Diego Zoo in USA and was doing the final touches!

If you are anywhere near San Diego Zoo, look out for Kioko Mwitiki who will be there for an entire month or more promoting his work and their gorilla exhibit. Here’s their promotional blurb…

Kioko Mwitiki, a renowned metal sculptor from Kenya, breathes life into recycled metal. These unique metal animal designs have been exhibited across East Africa, Europe, and now the San Diego Zoo! Recognized as a pioneer, Kioko doesn’t use any new iron sheets for his artwork; instead, he uses what most of us would consider rusty recyclables, from food cans to vehicle parts. Visit Kioko at Sun Bear Forest July 7–September 2.

If you get a chance, write to us and let us know how the exhibit is!

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Tags: African art, Kioko Mwitiki, metal Art, San Diego Zoo, wildlife