Maggie and Larissa go to Algiers to send up the politicians

Congratulations to two excellent artists — Maggie Otieno and Larissa Hoops.

They were invited to represent Kenya at the 2nd Pan-African Arts Festival in Algiers, which aims to showcase contemporary art, film and dance from all over the continent.

The first festival was held some 40 years ago: High time, then, for a second.

Otieno, 35, is showing three pieces of sculpture from her Conversations series of talking heads made of welded steel and mounted on hollowed logs.

Each is around two metres high, compelling most viewers (baseball stars excluded) to look up to achieve eye contact ... and that is quite deliberate.

Explained Otieno: “Conversations are political pieces showing how politicians are always talking but doing nothing.

“The pieces are high up because they demonstrate how the politicians are always looking down at us from their positions of authority — and although Kenyans are always looking up to them, nothing gets done.”

Otieno began as a painter and printmaker but switched to sculpture around 12 years ago under the influence of Elijah Ogira. Her work is marked by an inner energy that readily engages viewers.

Hoops, born in Kenya in 1981 and brought up in Nairobi, divides her time between here and the UK.

She showed two paintings in Algiers. Typically her work consists of several small paintings mounted together, effectively a series of snapshots from one scene.

For example, a breakfast table covered by a bright kitenge bears a blue, patterned plate, bananas, a cup and a saucer, a bottle of ketchup and a selection of painstakingly painted daily newspapers.

This presents superficially as a pretty illustration — yet there are deeper currents tugging beneath the decorative surface.

For the cumulative effect is both powerful and oddly disquieting, rather as though a pathologist were dissecting the start of her day.

Hoops is an intriguing painter with a lot to offer.

The Algiers festival opened on July 7 and stands until the end of September.