Excavation | Elevation

Exploring geological manipulation of the urban landscape, this exhibition followed the materials and labour of Nairobi’s transformation. All across the city, as shambas [fields] become ghorofas [tower blocks], earth is made to reach the sky. Excavation and extraction, quarrying and land speculation underpin high-rise skylines. But horizons can be fragile: buildings collapse and construction sites play host to new urban ecologies.

A practice-led collaboration between James Muriuki and Constance Smith, we explore cultures of construction in Nairobi. Our visual research took us from quarries where stone is cut to construction sites, prestige developments to dense tenement housing, building collapses to salvage economies of scrap. After several months of investigation, we developed the first public iteration of the project. The exhibition juxtaposed multi-screen film, photography and sculptural installation of quarried stone to ask how far stone and earth can be bent to human desires before they start to resist.

Held at the GoDown Arts Centre, Kilimani, Nairobi, October 2022. Part of UN Placemaking Week and Urban October.