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Retelling folktales through colour and patterns

Friday September 21 2018
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Why the Tortoise has a Broken Shell, and right, Feast in the Sky, by Gloria Muthoka. PHOTOS | KARI MUTU

By KARI MUTU

Gloria Muthoka uses her artwork to animate African folktales.

Forty-six of her paintings are on display in Hadithi, Hadithi, Hadithi Njoo, an art exhibition at the Alliance Francaise in Nairobi, from September 6-23.

The acrylics on canvas illustrations are created in brilliant colours, accompanied by printed storylines. Muthoka selects folklore from different parts of Kenya and tales that she heard as a child.

Her pictures evoke nostalgia for forgotten African anecdotes. Each narrative, portrayed in sets of four to five paintings, is both entertaining and morally enriching.

Sneaky Ambitions consists of four paintings in radiant colours that capture the life of Lwanda Magere, the invincible Luo hero warrior with a body of stone who was eventually betrayed by his wife.

Several heads are peeping round the trunk of an impressive tree behind an earthenware cooking pot in the illustration Wanakhatandi. It is the tale of a man from the Bukusu community who despised his many daughters until they saved him from being attacked by man-eating ogres.

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In other paintings, Muthoka tells of the adventures of different animals, the characters portrayed in typical patchwork colours, flowery symbols and geometric designs.

The pattern of a tortoise’s shell, which resembles broken pieces stuck together, is explained in the four-part collection titled Why the Tortoise has a Broken Shell. Here Muthoka adorns the bodies of the tortoise and the gecko with bright decorations so that even without the accompanying storyline, the painting has its own appeal.

Monkey’s Heart is a long vertical painting of a colourful crocodile carrying a monkey on its head. It is part of a series about the deep friendship between Crocodile and Monkey that came to an end because Crocodile’s wife was jealous.

On the abstract side, flocks of birds, leaves and a tortoise move through a coiling pattern in the paintings that form Feast in the Sky. The pictures tell the story of how greedy Tortoise ate all the food at the feast. Yet the interplay of shapes, swirls, patterns and rainbow colours makes your mind imagine other narratives.

Muthoka pursued a career in the humanitarian sector before resigning to pursue art full-time. Hadithi Njoo is her first solo exhibition.

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