Awuor Onyango describes herself as “a literary and visual artist navigating the pagan citadel of Nairobi in neo-colonial Kenya.” She has participated in a number of workshops at Kuona Arts Centre such as Life Drawing, as instructed by Ermias Ekube, and printmaking, instructed by Anki Kalstrom. She’s since participated in Sanaa (2014) an exhibition for upcoming artists, Kenya Art Fair (2014) Wasanii exhibition and has since started experimenting with video art and mixed media pieces on paper as well as sculpture.
Her art is scheduled for Chouftouhonna, a festival for feminist art in Tunis, and her writing has been featured in Jalada Africa as well as other journals. She was also featured in the British Council Global List 2016 as one of 33 most inspiring.
Awuor Onyango is thrilled to announce a new ethical fashion collaboration with Vida Designs. Vida is a global partnership of co-creators:- from a designer in Paris, to a producer in Karachi and a consumer in San Francisco, which is attempting to change the world through ethical commerce.
Vida harnesses the power of the Internet and digital printing to democratize art through fashion. Their story is that of the rich interconnected world we live in — the story of contemporary life and mindful, global citizenship. Their mission statement: We believe it’s time to rebuild commerce - for the mindful, global citizens of the modern world.
It’s an honour, not only to work on something that I love, but to work with an ethical company on that. I guess because of second hand clothes and a general laxity when it comes to ethics, we take for granted the dynamics of the textile industry. It’s good to know that the maker in Kathmandu who is printing my designs is getting their fair share and literacy classes too to further their career. It’s good to know there is no slave/forced or prison labour involved and that everyone involved mutually benefits from every step in production of these clothes. That’s hardly something I can say for my electronics or other clothes. It’s the transparency and fairness that’s important,” says Awuor.
She recently worked on print designs inspired by the Nairobi subculture for the ethical fashion line. The artist provided digital drawings for the collaboration which includes sleeveless tops, modern tees, cashmere scarves and pocket squares in colourblocked pinks, reds, oranges, blues and purples.
Speaking on the project, she had this to say.
“When VIDA approached me and showed interest in my work it came as a bit of a (scary) surprise. I put some thought into what it meant to do a collection and more than that, what it would mean to present Nairobi as I understood it and witnessed it and Kenya as well. There are certain shortcuts I feel people take, certain symbols that lazily capture a place, sometimes it’s the architecture, for example The Eiffel Tower in Paris and KICC in Nairobi. There’s also this interesting idea that we’re all walking around with “African print” and that if you see someone in African Print then you know where they are from, because Africa is a country. But I really had to dig into what I particularly like about Nairobi, or how I imagine Nairobi would be in my mind. The ‘Sub-culturer’ is a girl with blue dreadlocks, an ode to the creatives of Nairobi who venture far from corporate Nairobi but make the city more bearable for some of us.”
“I tried to move as far away as possible from the African Print aesthetic or the tie and dye aesthetic, to create a new language for how Nairobi can be seen on fabric.”
So what’s next for Awuor?
“Of Ancients is perhaps a peak into the next collection I would like to work on, bringing out the female heroes we silence in our history books and national memories.”
The collaborative collection is live on Awuor’s page of the Vida website:
http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/awuor-onyango
