KILIFI NEW YEAR 2020
Kilifi New Year is a contemporary African alternative and electronic music festival held under the stars and the majestic Baobabs in Kilifi town on the coast of Kenya. This being my second time attending the festival, I was not only attending it but also organizing it, specifically on the decor team. I got the possibility to work as the Decor Manager's assistant and some of my tasks were as follows:
- Supervising workers and aiding them in actualizing designs that needed certain skill levels. e.g Welding and carpentry.
- In charge of volunteers who were participating in the decor preparations.
- Reporting to the groundsman and the relevant managers on behalf of the decor manager to deliver information regarding materials to be used and any arrangements at the site.
- Sketching additional ideas and brainstorming on the proposed designs.
One of the major tasks that we managed to complete was to design and actualize the face of the Baobab Mama; this involved interpretation of the 3D model design created by Arafa Hamadi (Decor Manager) metalwork and the use of paint on the fabric that was attached to the metallic structure. Skilled welders came in handy and I had a great time working alongside them. I learned and laughed so much all through to the completion of the metallic structure.
The face of the Baobab mama gives me fond memories of the struggle with the weather, at some point, we had to work at the deck behind the office due to the rains. We had to form a temporary shelter for the face for the paint to dry and keep it away from the rains.
Shortly we completed the face, working alongside Ophelie Pinguet and Jeff Loxx for the painting part of it, whereas Ophelie and Jess Muchene worked on attaching the fabric onto the metallic structure.
This experience was marvelous and indulging. We let the volunteers tender suggestions on what was working and what was not working. This made my first experience working with volunteers worthwhile and some of us managed to foster friendships that have brought new opportunities in the present and are bond to promote more of such in the future.
The structural design of the Baobab Mama
The structural design of the Baobab Mama was designed by Arafa Hamadi, an architect who was the decor manager.
The interpretation design of the Baobab Mama
After I saw the design, I took the time to brainstorm ideas with Ophelie and Jeff.
We did our individual designs then submitted them to Arafa, who then chose the one that was close to the vision they had in mind. After one was chosen we incorporated our styles and this design became a reference for the final piece on the structure.
Priming & attaching fabric onto the structure
In the frame is Arafa, Ophelie, and Jess respectively, attaching the white fabric onto the structure and priming it with dilute glue to make the fabric impermeable which is suitable for applying a layer of paint.
This took about two days to dry given the weather condition. It was rainy and we had to move the structure on to another place for temporary shelter.
Applying the First Coat of Paint onto the Structure
The first frame is the face, all dried up and ready for the first layer of coating with paint. We used oil-based paint.
The second frame is me and Jeff applying the first coat, all thanks to Ophelie with her keen touch of mixing colours and bringing about wonderful pigments and subtle hues. In case you're wondering where she was when this photo was being taken, she is the one who took the photo. Haha!
The third frame is the Queen working with Jeff almost finishing up with the undercoat.
Typing this makes me remember me doing dramatic squats trying to stretch my arms working my way with a brush onto the nose. Haha! I guess you must be wondering "couldn't you lift the structure up?" Well, No! Haha, we were afraid the paint would stain the walls since this was just a temporary shelter because of the rains. The squats made my team's days I know. Lol!
Addition of detail onto the face[bringing Mama to life through art]
That was the first time working with both Ophelie and Jeff and I can say that it was a wonderful experience, the synergy was profound. Our ideas merged and we were able to bring out the vision as we saw it in our minds.
So far this is the only collaborative project that I have been able to freely express my creativity in my style and I am truly grateful for that.
The image on the right shows the face of the Mama next to what is the earring. The earring was made in the same way as the face, metallic structure with fabric attached to it. The earrings were fun to paint!
Later on we added a crown on the face as seen in the final picture. It was such an amazing feeling seeing the face going up where it would be for the rest of the festival. Note that there were other decor pieces not displayed on this page that looked amazing.
MAIN STAGE BEFORE
MAIN STAGE AFTER
MUZE STAGE DJ DECK
The Dream Team
The Dream Team
Decor Manager
Arafa C. Hamadi (they/them) is a multidisciplinary visual and installation artist, working in the fields of graphic, structural and 3D virtual design. They graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2017, with a Masters of Arts with Honours in Architecture. Currently based between Kenya and Tanzania, they work professionally as an art director for various festivals around East Africa including the Ongala Music Festival, Tanzania, and Kilifi New Year, Kenya.
During festival off-seasons, they create artwork in various mediums that address the intersections of the conceptual and the physical, as well as the ephemeral and the permanent, in hopes of provoking their visitors into considering their daily realities. Arafa’s work also explores their queerness in relation to space and occupancy.
They have been featured in exhibitions in Mozambique, Tanzania, USA and virtually. They were also part of the cohort of 2020 fellows for the ICA Fellowship (SA) as well as the 2020 fellows for the Bakanal de Afrique Festival (USA).
Arafa C. Hamadi
aSSISTANT Decor Manager
Edmond Nonay is a visual artist from East Africa of Kenyan and Tanzanian descent. He was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. He specializes in painting, drawing and digital art in the form of graphic design, music and poetry. His form of expression is mainly built around imagination and reality. His inspirations lie in science, hyper-realism, surrealism, minimalist yet intriguing art forms that invoke thought and emotion.
Nonay, who is a huge believer in setting intentions, states that practice without intention is a journey without a purpose and that when the intentions align with the practice, masterpieces are born.
One of Nonay's recent achievements was working for one of the biggest festivals in East Africa known as The Kilifi New Year Festival 2020. Before that, he has been part of an exchange program by Switcharoo titled 'A colourful connection'.
Edmond Nonay
Volunteer Artist
Ophélie Pinguet is a French-Rwandese abstract painter mainly based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a background in interior design and is currently pursuing a Fine Arts degree at Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
She has also worked for various festivals and exhibition around Kenya, including the annual Kilifi New Year Festival.
Her desire for expression through her art is represented through her use of different forms and materials surfaces. She typically engages various mediums, incorporating various textures to express the emotions and life of the scenes she creates.
Her artwork is inspired by the various countries she grew up travelling around in Africa, Europe and Asia. She uses her artwork to pay homage to the many cultures she has encountered throughout her life.
Ophélie Pinguet
Volunteer Artist
Joshua Fredrick Ogolla is a self-taught, freelance, Kenyan based, visual artist. He is influenced by the things he sees around him, i.e. the environment. He tends to fuse his observations with my imagination to achieve the desired outcome.
"I can say I have a keen eye on things that are happening around me and this forms part of the inspiration process. The connection existing between every single entity in the universe, the law of one, is so far my major and biggest inspiration whenever I make art. I try to create the connection between the subject matter and universe as a whole, on the artwork, which in the long run comes back to me as the artist. This mostly takes the spiritual and social intelligence approach."
He started off using mostly paper as my surface. This is why most of his artworks are still drawings done in graphite, charcoal, or pastels on paper. He is currently trying to experiment with different materials such as acrylic paints on canvas to be precise, mixed media and even digital art. He also employs the use of recycled paper made from hyacinth which has proved to be a thorn in the flesh in Lake Victoria.
Being fascinated with human anatomy, it would have been a surprise if most of his subjects fell short of being human figures. He has taken time to study the human figure through figure drawing sessions and reading literature on the same. He tends to manipulate or distort the human figure (not in a caricatured manner) by fusing it with other objects from my environment in order to achieve a given expression.
He mostly uses models as his subjects and other objects from nature. This does not mean he doesn’t do landscapes, seascapes or cityscapes. He tries to be versatile as possible with my art.
In line with the techniques he uses during the creation process, He employs a rather reckless but organized drawing style. He cross-hatches mostly to archive depth and also to give the drawing a character.
His pieces tend to touch on the social/political, spiritual and even economic aspects of society.
"If I feel there is an issue that needs to be addressed, then I put it down on paper."