Mbinguni Kume Pasuka is a lamentation of the times we inhabit and the multiple embodied griefs of current wars, global health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, televised genocides, overexploitation of natural resources, and environmental and climate injustice, all of which are interconnected.

“If there is a God, then maybe he has left us,” Ngugi says as he further explains the Kikuyu proverb that guides the exhibition Mbinguni Kume Pasuka (lHeaven Has Broken).

‘Kahio kugi gatemaga o mwene,’ which translates to ‘A sharp knife cuts the owner’ is a pointed and timely critique of the capitalist ‘growth and development’ rhetoric that privileges overconsumption, exploitation of the earth’s non-renewable resources and the accumulation of material wealth, at the cost of interdependent relationships of human beings with each other and the earth we inhabit and are custodians of.

“We are separated from ourselves and each other. For example, when I think about the festive season, in the past many families would travel upcountry to celebrate with their relatives, Now, money is sent through the phone, and video calls are made. These technologies have also created distance, while making connection easier.”

Assembled using worn-out knives, corrugated iron sheets, motorcycle chains, iron bars and binding copper wire, Ngugi’s use of material is deeply considered as he further interrogates how wood and steel, the primary components of his sculptures are harvested from the earth.

Mining of steel ore leaves man-made caves and crevices in the earth, and the cutting down of trees, often overharvested for commercial purposes loosen the soil both causing instability of the earth’s crust physically while also causing the same precarity in the livelihoods, health and wellbeing of communities who live in and around areas where these activities take place.

In Hayazoleki,2023 (Kiswahili for ‘that which has spilt cannot be collected’) Ngugi invites us to reconsider our relationship with the earth, a warning that decisions made now by those in power may be irreversible and will disproportionately affect people living in the Global South.

In Writing on the Wall I and II, (2023) Ngugi continues to clarify that the evidence of climate crises is clear, again a foreboding of the consequences of failing to adjust to the signs of the times, and disregarding the ‘prophetic writing on the wall’.

Ngugi Waweru was born in Nakuru, and grew up in Nairobi’s Lungalunga neighbourhood. Ngugi’s interest in art began in primary school, after which he began to experiment first with painting, and later with woodcut printing inspired by older graduates from Mukuru Art and Craft Community centre. Ever since his budding interest in the arts, Ngugi’s family has been supportive as it provided an alternative to the precarity of being inducted into a life of crime common in several low-income settlements to make ends meet. From 2005, Ngugi began to attend workshops facilitated by Peterson Kamwathi, Patrick Mukabi and Tabitha Wa Thuku, which allowed him to further embed into the Nairobi Contemporary art community.

Ngugi is a founding member of the Wajukuu Artist Collective where he teaches children and young adults to foster the same enthusiasm he has for art. His work has been exhibited locally and internationally; with selected exhibitions including 2023 AFRICA 1:1 Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice Italy, Kunstverein Arnseberd, Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany 2022, Systems of Emptiness, Circle Art Gallery 2021 among many others.

Ngugi Waweru.Mbinguni Kume Pasuka (Heaven has Broken), 13-30 March 2024

Ngugi Waweru.
Mbinguni Kume Pasuka (Heaven has Broken), 13-30 March 2024