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Sebawali Sio

Blue Gold Series 

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​SEBAWALI MWAKAI SIO

 
Sio is a painter and sculptor based in Taita Taveta and Nairobi.

When sculpting, she works with resin, fibreglass, wood, metal, recycled stained glass and other materials, while her paintings are mixed media oil, acrylic and ink. 

This artist is a fiercely experimental practitioner who never hesitates to explore different methods and applications in all her work. She loves textures and mixing different media to fully embody her vision objectively and to fulfill that goal for her audience to experience. 

In what feels like a 'constant chaotic state of mind', she uses hidden and 'self soothing personas' in her works.  Her chosen muses are seeking to find silence and solitude and therefore become observers of what seems to be the never ending cycle of an anxious world. 

​Symbolic images and colour choices often possess multiple layers of nuance in Sio’s work.  She puts together motifs and hand written fragments of her experiences and surroundings that repeat themselves throughout her paintings and sculptures.  Sio’s work has been heavily influenced by nature, music and the textures of her immediate surroundings and environment. 



BLUE GOLD SERIES 

The Blue Gold Series is an ongoing body of sculpture and paintings communicating our connection to nature and to one another. 

In this series, I communicate that the human condition can never be separated from nature. I strongly believe that we are - as are all living things - intertwined.  I believe that our interconnectedness with nature goes beyond the extent to which we feel and believe.

The colours blue and gold, were deliberately chosen, as both literal and symbolic elements. 

For me, the colour blue is synonymous with open spaces; freedom, intuition, imagination and inspiration. Blue is used as a reference for water and water bodies; like the ocean, rivers, lakes and the sky. The colour gold is inherently optimistic. I view gold as an encouraging hue that's pursuant of warmth, compassion and love. I use gold to reference the sun, soil, earth and people.  I believe that these two elements not only connect us but also enlighten us and  make us powerful.

Gold was once believed to be the 'tears of the sun' by the Incas and “flesh of the gods” by the Egyptians. 
The Akan women from the ancient Kingdom of Ghana were responsible for panning for gold along the rivers (blue and gold), while their male counterparts were responsible for mining within the earth for gold. From 700 to 1240, this West African country was one of the most powerful civilisations of the time as they traded gold for salt.  The ocean water is salty, further demonstrating the connection of blue and gold trading and being connected.  Gold in African civilisations was also believed to have magical properties, often used as a talisman for the living, or buried with the dead to take to the afterlife.

The gold dust in my sculptures serves as a protective element and this makes my sculptures resilient in ever changing weather and environments. 

I make sculptures in resin and fibreglass and use gold dust to coat them. The solidity of the sculptures and the use of the colour gold, are representative of the fact that the sun, the earth and African people are elements of nature that are powerfully connected. 
In the 'Blue Gold Series', I also explore different shades of blue in my paintings, using the colour to represent water and the sky as states of calm, open spaces and freedom.

Sebawali Sio - Nairobi - 2023


 


 

 

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