Background, Mediums, and Themes
Awuor Onyango is a writer and multisensorial artist, based in the pagan citadel of Nairobi and somewhat trained in English & French laws, Fine Art & Film. Their practice is concerned with (re)claiming public space erased/appropriated and or disallowed to people considered black, femme, and other, whether the space is intellectual, physical, in memory, or historical. Through writing, design, photography, (experimental) film, multisensorial installation, and fine art they explore issues of access, transgression, shame, and discomfort of the (continental) black femme. Their multidisciplinary approach is rooted in the ephemeral, interactive, and lived art traditions of East Africa, in which the seeking is supreme and the art object is evidence of the seeking.
Recent Projects
They were part of the Curationist Critics of Colour fellowship 2023 with In the Shape of an African, The Leaky Archive fellows 2023 with Binary for the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and the CREAte Initiative fellows 2022 B is for Bodies for CREA, they explored Olfactory interventions into National and personal histories and trauma (and the museum) in their project Woman of Substance in the Forecast Mentorship for Audacious Minds 2022). Recent exhibitions include Body of Land, at Streetlevel for Glasgow International 2021, Library of Silence ii: Stellenbosch Triennale (2020).