INSTALLATIONS
We are honoured to host some installations from around the community, primarily in the space known as the‘Slaughterhouse’, but also around The Mall generally.
The Jehovas - The R.V.E.R.
The [R.V.E.R] is a pirate radio station created by the electronic duo The Jehovas. Embedded with lore of fantasy and science fiction, the [R.V.E.R] brings its listeners to a sonic world where frequency eaters chomp up radio waves, giving abrupt endings to the[R.V.E.R]'s radio transmissions. In this sound instillation, The Jehovas sonically narrate their journey through the cosmos, sea and civilisations to find each other.
Sounds of Nairobi
This is an open-access archive of the sounds of Nairobi. It employs sound as a material that can be archived, researched and explored as a source of information that can narrate the story of the city, now and in the future. It is intended as a resource for artists, researchers, recordists… anyone interested in sound.
Sharon Onyango-Obbo - Never’s Conduit
Never’s Conduit: a composition cheekily cosplaying as a blank canvas. In expanding upon themes around relativism and the non-linearity of healing, Never’s Conduit sets itself apart as an audio-visual piece rooted in the nascent shaping of the alternative soundscape, Safari Trap. Through dense sonic fibers contrasted with eclectic traditional Ugandan musical excerpts, the 17-track project was directed, composed, produced, mixed and mastered by Sharon Onyango-Obbo. The interactivity of the performance draws from the artist’s desire to not inadvertently impose interpretive meaning onto audiences. Debuted in 2023 at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, for the Artist in Residence program with the African Music Archive, Never’s Conduit makes its Nairobi premiere at Kilele — a poignant playground for the technologically curious, and esoterically inquisitive. Guidedly-experimental, and deeply experiential, Onyango-Obbo cites personal favourites from the score such as “Sacred” featuring Nabalayo, that one can trace within the 45-minute piece juxtaposing science with sentience.
The SampleBar Kenya
The SampleBar Kenya is an interactive ethno-musicological exhibit aimed at preserving and showcasing Kenya's cultural heritage through digitized music recordings. The project entails archiving, documentation and exhibition of sounds and melodies of the diversity of Kenyan traditional instruments that are facing extinction, while relying on an innovative digital technology product.
Elijah - Yellow Squares
In the summer of 2021, grime artist and founder of influential label Butterz Elijah posted a simple and radical image to his instagram: a yellow square with a short sentence written on it. From this first virtual post-it was born ‘Yellow Squares’. Using this simple graphic tool, Elijah has shared reflections, questions and advice on the creative process, the mental challenges of being an artist, navigating the music business, using social media to build your career, and countless other themes.Elijah has gracioiusly allowed Kilele to reprint and post some of our favourites around the venue.