128
KENYA
Sebastian Kiarie
Oppression 1999
oil on canvas 110.3 x 75.5 cm

Sebastian Kiarie was born in 1971, lives in Nairobi, and works at the Kuona Trust Art Studio. His painting, in earth colours, shows a man wearing a suit, sitting on what appears to be a millstone, crushing three figures underneath. Weighing himself down even more by carrying dumbells, he has a look of glee on his face as he pushes his foot into the mouth of one of those below, whose hand still clasps a bowl, suggesting he was begging for money or food. All three figures underneath are expiring under the pressure, the middle one with his tongue forced out of his mouth. Despite the complexity of the muscular and heavy limbed composition, the artist has produced a painting which immediately arrests the attention of the spectator through direct and dynamic pictorial means in which he visualises the pressure of oppression.