HARDWARE

This project situates the hardware store as a structure and departure point for theory and practice in the context of Nairobi and Eastern Africa. Through an exploration of materials and tools that emerge due to geopolitical and sociopolitical factors, it interrogates processes of extraction and transformation as well as the agency of objects.

The hardware store is transformed beyond a transactional space to become a form to think with. The project expands on what these vernacular structures represent in urban environments such as Nairobi, and what other objects, models, services and activities might possibly be offered there in relation to art, architecture, material history and culture, critical discourse as well as construction and repair. Through site visits, speculative thinking, embodied knowledge and thought emerging from science and DIY technology, the project maps out how tools and materials have been forged and altered over time and how they transform through periods of accelerated progress, social unrest, weathering and energy production.

All images courtesy of the artist

©Jackie Karuti