On days when I don’t already know what to write about, I start to do random google searches. This always works like a charm, which today’s example shows perfectly. From “contemporary+art+red”, I discovered Cyrus Kabiru, a 32-year-old Kenyan artist, known for his “C-Stunners”, amazing sunglasses made from lost objects found in Nairobi. He considers himself an emerging artist, although his work was shown internationally, and he is a TED fellow (see the interview about his childhood and his stubbornness for what he does here).
After realizing his son wouldn’t become an engineer, Cyrus’ father offered to pay for art school. Cyrus turned him down, he was afraid he would start following teachers instead of his own ideas. After a childhood and youth spent as a rebel, an outcast even, he is starting to gain recognition for his work as an artist, which is an usual career choice in Nairobi – he is becoming an example now for others, he says, which was unthinkable a few years ago.
vignettiste 