Care Conversation
Spoiled and lazy or uneducated and exhausted? How can Njabala inspire us to reflect on the quality of how we care for our bodies and nature?
Move and dance mindfully through "Cultivating Rhythms of Care", a biophilic installation, curated to reflect on the relationship between the monthly cycle of a woman and the cycles in nature supported by an soundscape. Join Rebecca Khamala and Birungi Kawooya for a conversation on care, share knowledge on local foods, the changing seasons and how we can allow greater harmony to our lives.
We are delighted to welcome The Black and Yellow Pan-Coffee Shop by Gor Soudan, an interactive mobile art platform which examines the act of ritual in food culture; rituals of preparation, consumption and waste disposal with reference to traditional pan-coffee culture in Eastern Africa.
Programme
11:30 am: Coffee with KLA Artist, Gor Soudan
12:30 pm: Walk through “Cultivating Rhythms of Care”
13:00 pm: Lunch by MISR
14:00 pm: Dance through the seasons with Aminah Namakula and embody womanhood and cultivation practices encoded in dance
15:00 pm: Group discussion
Artists
Rebecca Khamala is a multidisciplinary designer, artist and writer with a background in architecture. Her work is fascinated with people, culture, and the environment. Khamala’s practice revolves around working in harmony with the natural environment and exploring local materials and technologies. She researches traditional crafts by collaborating with local artisans and thereafter reinventing them through contemporary design. She enjoys creating uplifting and inspiring works that are rooted in problem-solving while telling stories (in whatever form) that are true to people and their context.
Birungi Kawooya researches ways of being well in community, inspired by nature, Black feminisms and Afro somatic movement. She creates using sculpture, natural fibres and batik indigenous to Uganda. Her works celebrate Black womanhood, elevating rest, joy and well-being. Reflecting on how Black women are pivotal in leading social justice movements, she compels Black women to protect their dreamspace with the “Sisters Need Sleep” collection.
With the support of Njabala Foundation, 32° East and the Arts Council England, Birungi explored natural fibers during her 5-month residency in Uganda 2022-23. The resulting collection portrays themes of trauma resolution, time travel, well-being and sculptural installations inviting womxn to rest. She has exhibited with The New Art Gallery Walsall, The Portico Library, the Hastings Contemporary, The World Reimagined, Hammersmith BID, Mediacom, The Collective Makers, CasildeArt, Black Women Art Network, and Simply Gorgeous Salon.
Rebecca Khamala and Birungi Kawooya are participating in KLA ART ‘24 with the support of MISR (Makerere Institute of Social Research)
Gor Soudan
Gor Soudan’s practice incorporates drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and ceremony to reflect on social and environmental interrelationships. Working in series, Soudan considers how these relations transform both physical landscapes and imaginative inner-scapes. Since 2019 Soudan has been based between Nairobi and Kisumu where his research has centered around the forms and materiality of handmade agricultural interventions into the landscape. Working with a collective of basket weavers and studying traditional weaving forms have informed a series of ink drawings in which Soudan entwines patterns found in natural, virtual and architectural environments.
Soudan studied Sociology and Philosophy at Egerton University, Kenya. Selected solo and group exhibitions include: Dust Sheet Embroidered Snow, Project Gallery, Arundel, UK, 2019; Kikulacho: Remains, waste and metonymy III, British Institute of East Africa, Nairobi, 2018; Tokyo A La Carte, Tomio Kayama Gallery, Tokyo, 2018; Imprints, Redhill Gallery, Limuru, 2016; Join the Dots, Circle Art Gallery, 2015. In 2014 he participated in the Backers Residency, AIT in Tokyo Japan, and in 2017 the ICAF residency in Lagos, Nigeria. Soudan’s work has featured in international art fairs including 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair in London, 2022 and Cape Town Art Fair, 2018, both with Circle Art Gallery.