Rose is a character I created for a previous work, Fracture (i) [1]. She is struggling with coping in her current environment, Metz, a small town in France. The digital collages portray her in this town with superimposed images of memories of her mother’s home. A series of five works are presented in a golden frame that is reminiscent of the kinds of frame that a middle class Kenyan household might use, to present images of their family members. As much as living overseas often is seen as a great accomplishment, it is also often presents a great burden, and can provoke feelings of isolation and loss for many.

​

In Kenya and specifically in the capital city, Nairobi, there is a narrow viewpoint on what it is to be successful. Generally, success is measured with materialism that stems from capitalistic ideals. This current construction includes a value system based on communal identity, the result of which often creates violent and vulnerable circumstances.

My work references colonialism, as well as transformation and the contemporary situation. It navigates society – the idea of what you should or shouldn’t be, how you present yourself, and the burden of assumptions in our social environment.

I use photography to document objects that have personal symbolism for me, often zooming in and highlighting details. This is the core of my photographic process. These photographs in turn are reconstructed and incorporated into final installation and performance works and more recently in the digital collage series, Rose’s Relocation. In contemporary Kenya photography is a readily accepted technique that spans across most economic and social sectors. Photographs are part and parcel of the atmosphere of urban and rural homes; they are in calendars, family albums and displayed as framed pictures and engaged with via television and social media platforms. Photographs penetrate home life; they are a portal into a past time and ultimately create feelings of nostalgia as well as future aspirations.

​