“There is a poetic side of art that you cannot trust as a historical document, but it is the poetic side that can be moving and that can also provide a subtle, less political way of questioning a situation.” (Artuner). As stated by Kenyan-British Artist Michael Armitage, art can become a vehicle for new interpretations of current subjects including political and historical events. The subjective and ambiguous quality that art can have, offers a new way to question the actual event, leading to a new synthetic understanding of the situation and of reality itself. Armitage uses these qualities to explore the moral aspects of past and present socio-political events in Kenya and other parts of the world. Furthermore, Armitage is interested in incorporating historical relevancy and context in the framework of his art. In an interview with The Brooklyn Rail, He stated “At the end of the day, you’re dealing with the same matter as your predecessors, and you’re trying to make something active and relevant in the same way that artists 600 years ago were”. He is focused on weaving together aspects of Western (European) art and Kenyan artistic traditions both historically and materially, to ultimately formulate art that is relevant to the present day.

Armitage uses the aforementioned qualities throughout his body of work. Firstly, socio-political events are captured in his works through the crowded compositions and active poses of the figurative subjects. In 2017, Protests and rallies sparked amid the Kenyan general election, Bringing chaos and violence to the nation. These events would in turn inspire a series of works. In his painting The Promised Land (2019), Armitage navigates the turmoil of Kenyan post-election through the use of dynamic and exhilarating poses on the right side of the picture, where three men who are running become engulfed and suffocated into yellow and grey clouds of tear gas, ultimately referencing to the victims of the protest including those who died. Although he uses historical accuracy including news and media sources, he draws from his own interpretation along with a more inquiring attitude toward the moral and ideological dilemma that takes place during the elections, seen in the way the composition is split into two sides, presumable the left one alluding to a European political agenda while on the left side a more radical and subversive group. Furthermore, in one of his other paintings from the Rally series titled The Promise of Change (2018), Armitage depicts a child on a stage with a microphone, in front of an angered crowd. While the child is attempting to give what seems like an impossible speech, three adults one woman and two men, lean over imposing an obscure yet comical presence that seems to ridicule the child. Once again Armitage is leaving these ambiguous elements along with the saturated and vibrant color palette, as a way to provoke an inquiring reaction ultimately providing the viewer with a new way of seeing the subject matter regarding these events.

Moreover, Armitage uses historical elements of European art hinting at the direct influence of “African” artistic elements in modernist works. In his painting Nyali Beach Boys (2016), He re-explores Picasso and especially his famous work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Armitage draws a link from his work to Picasso’s, ultimately re-appropriating per se, the elements once appropriated by Picasso. Yet, this time he incorporated a twist by using contemporary subject matter and a Kenyan background. In his painting, the composition consists of five male prostitutes from Nyali (within Mombasa, Kenya), who are commonly known as “beach boys”. Here, Armitage is directly in conversation with the five female prostitutes depicted in Picasso’s painting. He renders the five males with a ghost-like luminosity, almost as if they are semi-translucent, and without visible details on their faces, they come to resemble the once appropriated masks, ultimately shifting the viewer's mindset into a new perspective, shining a light on aspects of contemporary relevance. Lastly, Armitage approaches the material in a different path, by incorporating a traditional Eastern African lubugo cloth as a canvas for his paintings. Extracted from the Mutaba tree, the bark undergoes a laborious process until you are left with a fibrous cloth-like material. Lubugo has been used for generations to bury the deceased as well as a ceremonial element. Armitage intends to find a medium that is native to his culture, while also pushing for a decolonization of the prevailing canvas of the European tradition, ultimately re-claiming East African art and incorporating it into the contemporary scene

In conclusion, I would argue that Michael Armitage is providing a new framework to approach and interpret art, while maintaining a permanent thread between the past and present both historically and materially, making the viewer and in this case, society, look through different lenses in relation to East African contemporary life and the current socio-politics. Ultimately, I think his art becomes influential to people who have long been shadowed under the umbrella of colonization and Western ideologies, offering a new window of opportunities to interpret and incorporate into the contemporary world.