Miriam Syowia Kyambi

Fracture I is a performance art piece that was viewed in the Kouvola Art Museum that was first performed at its opening on 29 April 2011. The performance lasted roughly one hour.[10]

According to Johanna Vuolasto, who is a curator at the Poikilo Kouvola Art Museum, in this performance, Kyambi uses the female body to transcend her message of how individuals store their experiences, good and bad, and continue to live their lives. Kyambi explores the question of what will happen to humanity if people cannot process those abhorrent experiences or mourn the lives they have lost.[10] Kyambi believes that people living in fear deserve a chance to be themselves. She says that the desire for justice is universal.[10]

Vuolasto also said that the narration of the performance was strong, and dexterous but also simplified in a way. Kyambi allowed herself to go through an agony that she allowed to spread through the audience and it constructed a dialogue between herself, the viewers as well as her narration. In the conclusion, Kyambi faced the agony of the past, relinquished the portrayal she had built, and accepted the feelings of sorrow and agony. Within that process, Kyambi could rediscover what was once her life. By this time, the audience stood awestruck. Vuolasto said that some audience members returned frequently to see it and others wept openly because they understood the message that Kyambi was trying to get across.[10][11]

This piece is an experimental multi-media production that incorporates performance, installation, photography and video.[12]

In this work, Kyambi collaborated with another artist and choreographer James Mweu, along with dancers from the Kunja Dance Theatre to help her perform and create material that centralizes her personal, contemporary viewpoints; such as the body, gender issues and social perception.[12]

Kyambi and her dancers performed this piece over a period of four weeks and their final performance was held on 5 July 2014. This performing art piece was hosted at GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi.

This project is a mixed-media installation and sculpture work. Kyambi spent a lot of her time in Mexico observing people. She came to the conclusion that certain positions and gestures can mean one thing but when you put them in a different context, they can mean something totally different. She compares that to her art. That if you shift the art, the same gesture can be read differently. It is about presentation.

Her aim is for Peep box to illustrate the perceptions of moments.[12]

This is a series of work that is photography-based. Kyambi collaborated with James Muriuki. They used sterile gloves because they were a material that they noticed a lot in the hospital section as well as in laboratories during their research at KEMRI.[12] Kyambi observes that they are a material that protects as well as creates a barrier.

Kyambi and Muriuki then started to explore how they could use the gloves as a form of art and visual conduit. They threw the gloves up in the air and watched them fall naturally. As they did so, Muriuki saw the light through the gloves as they took pictures of them in mid-air. This process started their series the Conjured Paths, Skies, Herbs, and Gloves.

This project was done during the Art in Global Health Residency which was part of the Wellcome Collection Grant in 2012.

The images used in this work were scanned from the Nairobi National Museum's archive department. Kyambi used records going as far back as 1898 until current times.[12] The images that she used in this piece were used to combine normal everyday life with political figures and monumental moments in Kenya's history.[12]

This work consists of earthenware ceramic work with sisal rope, hessian cloth and Christmas lights. Kyambi visited the places that inspired this work such as the Fort Jesus Museum, Mombasa, the Kilifi Sisal Plantation Farm, Kilifi, the Karen Blixen Museum, Nairobi, and the Kenya Railway Station and train line from Nairobi to Mombasa.

This was part of the My World Images Festival 2010.[12]

During Kyambi's process of breaking clay pots during Fracture (I), the red paint inside caused her to instinctively walk around in circles in the aftermath of her performance right outside her studio.

These images capture a "moment of leaving marks, footprints which is more interesting than the performance itself", says Kyambi.[12]

This piece is part of a series of works that were collaborated with James Muriuki. They were interested in the relationship between health researchers based at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and their relationship with the participants in their studies.

This project was done during the Art in Global Health Residency which was part of the Wellcome Collection Grant in 2012.

Kyambi says that the images were close-ups of a shirt that belonged to her mother. The shirt becomes a piece of fabric and could be mistaken for hessian cloth. This shirt symbolises growth, agriculture, construction and interior decorating.

This work was shown at the Nairobi National Museum.

This work is an exhibition that was born after a two-month trip to Mexico City. There, Kyambi researched the connections between Mexican visual, social, and historical cultural influences in comparison to Kenya's cultural history.