Ndururumo

Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga studied design at the University of Nairobi in Kenya and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her practice retains strong connections with her African legacy, and the culture and traditions of the Kikuyu people. She produces her sculptures from worn out metal, creating a poetic sanctum through the play of opacity and reflections on its surface. Exploring the traditional production methods associated with women’s labour in Kikuyu culture, Gakunga creates works that intertwine art with craft, natural processes with cultural heritage, and chance with the precision of artistic production.

"Ndururumo" is a hanging sculpture made of oxidised sheet metal known as “mabati” in the Swahili language of Kenya. This sheet metal gave its name to the Mabati Women’s Group in the 1960s, an organisation and movement established by the economically disadvantaged women in the central province of the Republic of Kenya to address the immediate welfare needs of women. Sheet metal has been one of the powerful symbols of the women’s emancipation movement in the region. In the first years of the post-colonial era, the female community managed to change the routine of their daily lives, thereby saving labour and time for their private and communal life by introducing the use of sheet metal. This came about by using the material to cover the roofs of their houses, following which women were able to harvest water at their homes, which meant that they did not need to go to the rivers to get water.