Roy Jethro Phiri: Young Zambian artist builds miniature robocops and robodogs from scrap

By Andrew Mulenga

(Story first published in the Bulletin & Record magazine 2013 October edition)

When most 17-year-old urban youths are not in school, they spend their recreational time ‘hanging out’ at shopping malls, watching movies, playing video games, fidgeting with their mobile phones or – whether we like it or not – indulging in alcohol abuse among other vice propelled activities.

A robotic police officer by Roy J. Phiri

But  Roy Jethro Phiri, a grade 12 pupil at St. Raphael’s Secondary School in Livingstone, a young man who declares he has had his share of teenage mischief, spends long hours creating miniature sculptures you would expect to see on the set of a Hollywood science fiction movie.

Using all types of miniscule, discarded material such as old cuff links, radio knobs and lighter switches, he creates convincing robotic dogs and police officers, and although they are inanimate, they give you the feeling that they might get up and start moving.

“When I was young”, which ironically was only last year “I wanted to make a ring from my mother’s old glasses. But I ended up making a necklace instead. So sometimes I will start with one idea and end up making something else”, he says as he adds the last bit of adhesive to the breastplate of a robotic policeman. The breastplate is a former label from the protective casing of a ‘Police’ brand of sunglasses.  

Robodog,  a miniature robotic dog by Roy J. Phiri

“But the way it all started, is that I see shapes in the smallest things and then I think what if I stick this and that together what will I be able to create”, he says “I just throw pieces on the floor or on a table then I go to work”.

Phiri believes God blessed him with a photographic memory which he says has been quite helpful when he is creating miniatures. Apart from robots, he is also a submarine, aviation, car and motorcycle enthusiast who is confident that he will someday design all of these things if he gets the proper motivation and education.

A miniature chopper by Roy Phiri

“I have pictures of motorbikes in my head, so when I saw the top of a used cigarette lighter I knew that this will be ideal for my motorbike’s fuel tank,” he says gesturing to a ‘chopper’ that he created as he went on to explain that the chopper which has a long front end with extended forks is often mistaken for a Harley Davidson.

After he gave the author a brief lesson in various types of motorcycles, he explained that he was inspired after he rode one virtually while playing a round of the popular computer game Grand Theft Auto, which would imply that contrary to common belief computer games are not entirely a influence on youngsters, here is a teenager whose creativity has been triggered by one. He also gets inspiration from cartoons.

SUV by Roy J. Phiri

“For this bike, I went to an old radio and got the knobs which I later used as the wheels, I also used some stuff from an old fishing rod,” he explains saying that he is in his comfort zone when he has all these bits and pieces in front of him.

“I never get tired as long as I have my glue and my pieces in front of me. I use super glue as well as prime bond to stick my pieces together.”

Some of the pieces that he uses are in fact so miniscule one would think he uses a magnifying glass and can easily pass for a Swiss watch maker.

Phiri has several boxes filled with the discarded trinkets that he collects in his backpack. For him every day is an adventure because he never knows what next he is going to make. He does not draw sophisticated sketches or blueprints but creates his works adlib or ‘freestyle’ as it were, and the does all this in a house that does not have electricity, often working under candle light at night.

Roy makes his miniature sculptures
from hundreds of used objects

Fortunately, a friend of his, Mr Kondwani Yombwe is the son of the renowned Livingstone art couple, Mr Lawrence Yombwe and wife Mrs Agnes Buya Yombwe whom after being introduced to the boy and being moved by his work offered him space in their Wayi Wayi Art Studio. Mr Phiri can be found at the studio taking advantage of the well-lit space when he wants to work late; the reason why the house he lives in does not have electricity is due to some recent renovations he and his mother made to it. He says he and his mother did not even hire a brick layer to build the extension to the main house in which they are living, they did it all by themselves.

He says his mother, Junita Heppletchwaite – who is of Lozi and Dutch heritage – is the most innovative person he knows, and it has not been easy for her to raise him as a single mother. His father, Jay Adolph Phiri once a famous Zambian musician and member of The Rising Stars a popular boy-band that took the country by storm in the 1970’s performing both locally and internationally, died when he was only four years old. However, owing to young Mr Phiri’s photographic memory he still remembers and cherishes the moments he spent with his father for the first few years of his life.

Roy Phiri applies some finishing touches
to one of his miniature sculptures

But it is to his mother that he looks up to due to her perseverance in raising him and his siblings, which was not always easy as they had to move from town to town, Chingola, Ndola and finally Livingstone and he has vowed to make her proud by becoming a success in life. His dream is to acquire a scholarship that would enable him to study Robotics or Industrial Design after he completes his secondary school. A degree in Industrial Design would enable him to use both applied art to design as well as invent anything from household products to new types of vehicles.

But among Phiri’s top aspirations is being able to design artificial limbs by the use of Cybernetics to assist amputees and accident victims.

As much as his prodigious creative talent, is coupled with the advantage of youthful enthusiasm, the devoted young Christian believes in God’s grace and in September this year, he attended a deliverance sermon at Divine Fire Cathedral in Livingstone.

“I met Christ, I was one person who never wanted to hear anything about God, but now I am a changed person”, says Mr Phiri.

Zambia may not have the adequate infrastructure and mentoring routines to groom this future engineer, but it is exciting that the country has such animated brains and talent, and all we can do is watch and wish him all the best, he may just put the country on the map one day. - ENDS

The artist, the Makishi and the hit and run driver

By Andrew Mulenga

(This article was first published in The Bulletin & Redord Magazine, February 2015 edition)

In 2014, through this writer, The Bulletin & Record, heralded Ignatius Sampa a 23 year old Lusaka-based painter as a creative prodigy, the next big thing on the Zambian art scene, and rightly so because the youngster created ripples when barely two years ago he adventurously introduced caricatured portrayals of the Makishi costumed figures from the Mukanda initiation masquerades of North Western Zambia.

Ignatius Sampa, Adventure, 2014, acrylic on
canvas (Private collection, Lusaka)  

Of course it could not be foretold that through a late night hit and run road accident in Lusaka, the same year will in fact claim the life of this young man who enjoyed perfect physical health and a lively social life.

But the word that has been doing the rounds on the art scene since the fateful November day of is that the Makishi were finally fed up of Sampa’s shenanigans.They were tired of disrespectfully being portrayed in renditions of Da Vinci’s Last Supper and Mona Lisa, riding Harley Davidson motorcycles,doing the Salsa or playing the violin and so by otherworldly means claimed the artist’s life by physically manifesting the death in a fatal accident.

“Mudala mizimu za Makishi zina kwiya na ma paintingi” (big man, the spirits were not happy with the paintings) said a close friend and fellow artist who shied away from  being mentioned but confirmed that he once warned his friend against going too far with the portrayals especially because he was not from the region and may have not have understood how respected the Makishi were.

Sampa had made himself synonymous with these figures sacred to the Luvale, Chokwe, Luchazi, Lwena and Mbunda people so much that he was often called “Mufana wa Makishi”loosely translated as “Makishi boy”.

Also known as the Akishi in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo they are believed to be spirits of the deceased.

In the 1990 book Makishi, Mask Characters of Zambia by Manuel Jordan, John Picton from the University of London writes: “[…] they embody the spirits of important and memorable deceased individuals and as such they are treated with due reverence”.

Nevertheless, about two years ago when the artist just burst on the scene confessed that he was approached by fellow artists from the North Western region who advised him to stop and warned him against the continuous adulteration of these sacred figures that are evoked by means of masks depending on which ritual or ceremony.  The Makishi’s individual roles and hierarchy differ, some represent royalty, some are for protection, some are for fertility. For instance in the book “Ceremony!”, Tamara Guhrs  writes: “Kayipu  is the King of the Makishi, mask associated with the chief. If a chief’s son or nephew is being initiated, Kayipu must be made” and Chikishikishi is a likishi “with a pot of burning coals on his head. Disciplining function, supposed to eat up evil elements in society”. But Sampa represented them whichever way he wanted.

Ignatius Sampa, Coat of Charms 2014,
oil on canvas 

His very last painting is unfinished needless to say, but it ironically depicts a Likishi that appears to be running off with a painting and an easel. Is the painting a manifestation of the Makishi snatching the art from the artist but doing so by taking his life? Was Sampa’s hand possessed into painting a physical manifestation by means of a metaphor? Who knows?

But the chatter remains adamant the spirits did claim his life and as such, one may argue that no artist will be seen going down this experimental path any time soon. While the Makishi will remain a favourite subject among Zambian artists, there is doubt that anyone will attempt to depict them the way Sampa did.

Whatever the case, his disturbing deathwill  forever evoke deep reflection on the sheer futility of life, the loss of a young man with incredible promise who will remain one of the great young revolutionaries of the Zambian art scene.

His professional art career only spanned 3 years including a long period in which he had disappeared from the scene altogether, only to return to his brushes early last year. In his last days he was working non-stop as if preparing for a solo exhibition.

In his last interview when asked what he intended to do with all these paintings during an interview for the Bulletin & Record his response was: “Now I’m just painting because art is what I love doing. I’m not painting to sell at all, maybe later but not now, yes I will put a work in an exhibition now and then but I’m not really thirsty to sell. Sometimes people will offer me money for a work but I won’t sell it because I want to be looking at it myself”.

On his Makishi Last Supper these were his words: "All the last supper paintings I've seen have 'white' people in them, so I thought I should make one that is more African, in fact more Zambian, and for me there is nothing that represents Zambia more strongly than the Makishi”.

Sampa's last work, a Likishi running
away with an artwork

Among his very last works are Coat of Charms a play on the Zambian Coat of Arms which he explained was almost rejected from showing in the Zambia Jubilee exhibition because it was considered too controversial, the work nonetheless is a good example of his boldness and Adventure, a painting that depicts a likishi on a motorcycle cruising the open road embodies the artists free spirit.

The artist Ignatius Sampa

 

The Lechwe Trust: A collection of Zambia’s 52 year journey

By Andrew Mulenga

Rummaging through the relatively small collections of contemporary art in Zambian museums it is difficult to pinpoint or rather, establish a bird’s eye view of how thematic content and creative expression has evolved in paintings over the past 50 years.

Henry Tayali, Destiny, 1964-65 oil on canvas, 58cm x 89cm, 
donated by the Zukas family - © Lechwe Trust

Largely, because the museums are intentionally ethnographic by blueprint, as leftovers of the country's colonial masters, the British, their primary role remains that of providing a curious glimpse into local cultures as a phenomenon, through the eyes of explorers, missionaries, settlers – and in a nutshell colonizers.

Most if not all the museums from the Moto Moto Museum in Mbala to the Livingstone Museum in Southern Province are a display of collected and often misunderstood and misrepresented data in the form of objects from local ethnic groupings this is not to say the collections do not have important specimens of scientific significance. Nevertheless, this remains the focus of museums, the best place to at least view any meaningful trajectory in the development of an artistic idiom in Zambia is within the older private collections – long-standing collections in Lusaka -- such as the Namwandwe Collection, Rossi Collection at Villa Lucia and the Garden Group of Hotels, The Chaminuka Collection at the Chaminuka Luxury Lodge and Game Reserve and the Lechwe Trust Collection.

Akwila Simpasa, Mother and Child, 1973,
mixed media on paper, 110cm x 60cm - © Lechwe Trust

Even though they are private, all save for the Lechwe Trust Collection are on permanent display and open to the general public and they all possess wide ranging varieties of work from the 1960s through to the present.

As much as the Lechwe Trust Collection is the only “homeless” collection mentioned here, it has some of the most unique examples of contemporary Zambian art that date back to the 1960s in a traceable path. It has more than 300 paintings, prints, ceramics and sculptures and these are works by not only the Zambian greats but by a younger generation of artists that have shown exceptional talent that is worthy of display in a notable collection, so you will find works from the likes of the legendary Akwila Simpasa to the young and gifted Ignatius Sampa. Again what is significant about the collection is that it’s underlying strength is that it demonstrates how Zambian artists have sought to find their own visual voice over the years, they have been attempting to break the yoke of an aesthetic that has appealed to a Euro-American collector base and is characterized by paintings of wildlife and rural scenes that evoke an idyllic, unadulterated Africa such as giraffe drinking water or children drawing water from a stream. Images that had been popular since the days of the defunct Lusaka Art Society and its successor the Art Centre Foundation which through a collaboration between Anglo American and the Department of Cultural Services occupied gallery space on the first floor of the Anglo American building opposite the High Court.

Henry Mulenga, Lusaka Rail Station, 1990-5,
mixed media, 103cm x 82cm, donated by Diane Bouchard - © Lechwe Trust

Some works in the collection that can be said to have broken the aesthetic yoke are Henry Tayali’s The Irony of Destiny or simply Destiny done between 1960 – 1965, Akwila Simpasa’s Mother and Child, 1973, Henry Mulenga’s, Lusaka Rail Station, 1990-5 or Stephen Kappata’s, UNIP and MMD Governments, 1998 to name a few. Tayali and Mulenga’s work are comments on urban life from an African perspective, Simpasa’s is a stylized rendition of the popular mother and child theme in his own idiosyncratic style that has Afro-futuristic nuances and Kappata’s is a caricature of the hardships the electorate still faces whether they vote in a new government hoping for a change for the better.

Unfortunately, this remarkable collection remains sealed in two forty-foot freight containers, just as it has been for just over twenty years, only to be displayed occasionally in hired spaces such as the Lusaka National Museum.  As luck would have it, after years of lobbying and fundraising the collection will soon be on permanent display. A piece of land has already been allocated and the gallery blue prints are all set. Scheduled for early 2017, construction of the building which will have a gallery as the centre piece surrounded by offices and shop spaces to let is dubbed “The Gallery Office Park”, it will be situated on Lagos Road in between the Law Association of Zambia Offices and the Alymer May Cemetery in Rhodes Park, Lusaka.

Stephen Kappata, UNIP and MMD Governments, 1998,
oil on canvas, 75cm x 97cm - © Lechwe Trust

According to the Lechwe Trust, the space will not only house and display the art collection for continuous public view but it will provide a community outreach facility for art education and cultural exchange programmes, preserve contemporary artistic heritage and contribute to sustainable tourism, assist visual artists to access a more professionally-managed space for display of their art, offer school children and groups guided tours and video projections of Zambian art and ultimately provide Zambia with a public visual art national gallery.

Established by Cynthia Zukas MBE The Lechwe Trust is a charitable trust for the Visual Arts in Zambia, started in 1986 with the primary aim of collecting Zambian art that would potentially find itself abroad at the hands of foreign collectors and members of the diplomatic core who constitute the main collector base.

Zukas an accomplished artist herself teamed up with her two friends the late ceramist Bente Lorenz and Henry Tayali. Lechwe Trust later broadened its scope and began providing scholarships to promising artists; commissioning works of art for public display, supporting organizations working for the promotion of the visual arts in Zambia such as Mpapa Gallery, Zintu Arts and Crafts, Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce, Zambia National Visual Arts Council, Choma Museum, Lusaka National Museum, Copperbelt Museum, Mbile and Insaka International workshops.

Zukas settled in Zambia in 1964 when her husband Simon – a liberation hero who was exiled by the British colonial government -- was invited to be part of the independence day celebrations. Her contribution in promoting art in Zambia from the day she arrived, has not gone unrecognized, as such in 2012 Queen Elizabeth II of England has awarded an MBE to Zukas, in recognition of her services to visual art and to charitable work in Zambia”.

Due to the lack of it's own gallery space, the collection is stored in cargo
containers and only exhibited occasionally