Travel With Reason

[Lagos, Nigeria] I’m typically fraught with anxiety when passing through any kind of passport control or security checkpoint in a third-world country. I’ve written earlier about the High Commission officer who eyed my temporary visa photo, taken just the night before, with great suspicion and said: “this looks terrible.” I seriously thought the photo was an improvement over my permanent passport shot which sports a 3-day beard and a general air of “keep an eye on this guy.”

But bag inspections at X-ray stations always give me a special kind of nerves. What did I pack and forget about that will embarrass us all when they paw through it? What item innocuous to me will arouse an interrogation?

Take tonight in Lagos. I thought I was home free since my friend and I were being personally whisked through almost all of the airport’s chaotic check-in and boarding procedure. (He’s one of the top 15 fliers in the world on this airline, and one of only 6 on an elite advisory board whom they treat like royalty.) But no. One of my carry-ons was a relatively ratty shopping bag from two countries ago, in which I had wrapped a piece of “art” in a hooded sweatshirt. It raised flags in the X-ray scanner.

“Open this up please.” I unwrap the piece. “What is this?” Art, I reply. Suddenly I know I am in trouble. The Nigerian security mama seems by no stretch to be an art lover, let alone an admirer of the outsider/street/folk art I have purchased in the Nairobi slums. “Art? What kind of art? What is this made of?” Oh shit. It’s a framed collage made of broken glass. Wire. Shards of slum crap. Among other things. All secured in place, but still. Between my passport photo, and the fact that an al Qaeda alert relating to American interests was issued earlier in the week (this is true), I’m getting nervous.

I make the plea that I’d already made it once through Kenyan airport security, that I am an artist (a stretch, but aren’t we all) and trying to help out destitute folks in the slums of Kenya by sharing their art with the world. I have no idea where our Lufthansa shepherd is, or my friend! A few major suspicious eyebrows and harumphs (and an obvious thumbs-down to my purchase), the agent says “wrap this up” and I get the hell out of there.

I’m not going to show the work here just now, but I will say, after I purchased it in a Kibera studio (shack), I asked the guys to tell me about the artist. I learned it was produced by “Ali Gator” (they all have handles), an erstwhile plumber who currently is in prison for a domestic battery disturbance involving his father and a rent collection. (Hmmm – prison art – bet I can sell this to Intuit.) Now, here is your geopolitical education for the day: Kenya currently is suffering a major prison crisis – overcrowding, understaffing, rioting, dreadful conditions, etc. The plumber part was evidenced by the creative use of a drain-stopper in the mixed-media collage – slightly puzzling since a drain-stopper of any sort would seem an audacious dream in the plumbing-deprived Kibera. But that’s the great thing about art – it makes you think.

* * *

You will be able to view this suspicious piece of art, along with a number of other mixed media works and paintings (I swear they are not all this odd) from the M2 collection of street artists in Kibera, at an upcoming show. I’m happy to announce here the opening of my new studio/gallery, within(Reason): a space for contemporary art and photo, in the Pilsen area of Chicago (south of downtown). The inaugural show will be called “Hope In a Hard Place” and will also feature:

a supersized slide show of my photographs of the kids of Kibera

prints of the beautiful graffiti of the M2 collective calling for justice, peace, and an end to the tribal tensions that flared, fatally, after December’s elections

some funky abstract oil paintings of Kenya’s Masai tribespeople

Fun huh? And my show’s not the only reason to venture out. The opening is held during Pilsen’s monthly “Second Friday” Gallery walk, on Friday June 13, from 6-9 pm, so you can check out the rest of this growing arts district as well. If you can’t make it this night, just call or email to make an appointment to see the show in the week preceding, or for a few weeks after, and/or visit my new website, ArtWithinReason, to preview the art and find information including address and map.

Please note: all profits of any art sold at this event or via the website will be returned to the kids of Kibera for arts programs and/or an after-school club, when I return there later this year (and once I figure out how to reliably funnel proceeds to such a thing). Holler if you wanna help!

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

You must be logged in to post a comment.