Syowia Kyambi, a Kenyan multimedia artist currently residing in Germany, uses her work to highlight how we can infiltrate ethnographic museums and use archival materials to respond to specific sites and spaces without behaving like colonizers. To answer this question, she created a character named Kapsale, a trickster, joker, fool, and Casper, who enters segregated or elitist spaces to create artistic interventions and connections between stagnant and static identities.
Kapsale’s Playground is a 10-minute performance featuring the trickster character, who Syowia displays through a mask that acts as a character intervening in situations with violent stories. The performance began as a research study into the history of Amani Research Station in Usambara, Tanzania, and the archives of MARRK Museum in Hamburg.
Syowia introduces Kapsale by painting her toes and pouring glitter pellets on her lips before donning the mask. Kapsale then walks through a series of time periods, both past and present, displayed using a projector. The performance portrays Kapsale as present in current realities and imaginative safe spaces, always ready to speak out against injustice in communities where speaking out is taboo. Syowia uses different forms and mediums, such as paintings, mask sculptures, and performance plays, to engage her audiences in the immersive experience of Kapsale’s journey.
As the protagonist, Kapsale examines individuals’ perceptions of others, hierarchical systems, gender notions, and body memory that affect our identities today. Kapsale’s walkabout urges the audience to examine their own actions and the potential influences and effects of different issues today on future generations and communities.
“The performance isn’t the most important thing for me. The performance is just a trigger. The performance leaves an imprint,” says Nabila Abilahi, who attended the performance in Hamburg, Germany.
The play provides a one-on-one interaction with the character, allowing the audience to better understand Kapsale’s journey. Overall, Syowia’s work highlights important themes and encourages viewers to reflect on their own roles in shaping the future.
