John Doe
Aug 17
Kanou Miyo: Vuvuzelas, Rice, and no Cassava in Three Time Zones
Performances by Robert Machiri
Harare-born, Berlin-based artist Robert Machiri performs Kinou Miyo (under the tree) a Houston iteration of sonic movements and archival recordings from his ongoing explorative Pungwe Sound Trails, one of works coming out of the project PUNGWE. PUNGWE centers sound to engage with social, political and economic concerns that are performative, to connect with peoples whose lived experience intersects with colonialism, climate change, and migration globally—from Harare to Indonesia to Berlin to Houston.
Machiri’s practice is conceived as a series of ephemeral encounters that explore relationships between people, history, and memory through intersections of sound and spatial politics.
Pungwe Sound Trails is part of Ecoficitions and Understories, a city-responsive curatorial program curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Assistant Curator at the Blaffer Art Museum and supported by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, to speculate potential worlds for gathering, resisting, regeneration, and disruption persistent in artistic responses, organizing, and actions. The program connects practices of ecological and cultural safe-keeping through community organizing, sonic semiotics, and south-south relationality.
Pungwe Sound Trails is presented at the Houston Climate Justice Museum in conjunction with Climate Migrations: Displacement, Travel, Home, a series of art installations, expert panels, and public engagements that aim to deepen understanding and experiences of climate migration in Houston.
Thursday, November 9, 2023
6:30 - 9:00 PM
at the Climate Migrations exhibit
POST Houston, X-Atrium
Registration is encouraged through the eventbrite link here.
Saturday, November 11, 2023
2:00 - 3:30 PM
at the Climate Migrations exhibit
POST Houston, X-Atrium
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About the artist:
Robert ‘Chi’ Machiri born in 1978, in Zimbabwe. Machiri is a ‘sound worker’, a DJ and hoarder of things inspired by his biographical recollection of music and interest in sonic objects. His work exists at the juncture of two streams of practice, curatorial projects and art production presented through an embodied critique; a process of learning and unlearning that interweaves sound, music and image-making. His most notable project PUNGWE is an ‘anti-disciplinary’ project that circles African soundings with related contemporary arts discourses and spaces.
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The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston is the interdisciplinary arts resource for UH students, faculty and staff, and the general public. In order to bridge disciplines, stimulate dialogue and support the creation of innovative work, the Mitchell Center supports a variety of programs such as lectures and workshops, performances and exhibitions, scholarships, residencies and visiting artists.
