CONDITIONAL LOVE

A Kenyan painter’s art questions China’s deepening reach in Africa 

The officials in suits arrived uninvited at Michael Soi’s studio located in the fringes of the industrial area of Nairobi. They were four men and two women, Chinese, and instantly started rifling through the stacks of artwork in the space and tossing paint cans around.

This was in 2015, a year during which China and Kenya were strengthening their bilateral relations with promises of working together in sectors as diverse as agriculture, infrastructural development, tourism, besides peace and security. Soi, a veteran artist known for his politically and culturally charged pieces, said the group started “lecturing” him, chiding him for being “ungrateful” for China’s contributions to Kenya. Soi immediately asked them to leave his space.

Photos Of Senegalese In The 1920s & 1950s

Just like Instagrammers today challenge the stereotypes of Africa in the digital era, the black and white film photography of Mama Casset used the tools of the colonial era to challenge the narrative of a wild Africa. His subjects pout and pose in gestures that challenge the images of Africans created by white photographers at the time (and frankly, some today).

Now, his work is finding a new audience in an exhibition at Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes, “First talents of Senegalese photography,” on until August 26.