I have been glasses since I was 8 years old and I worked at an optometrist for close to two years. So I have a soft spot for optical and sunglass frames. Especially when the frames move beyond being just frames but statement pieces. For example the C-Stunners collection by Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru. Kabiru’s glasses are made out of found objects such as twisted wire, sheet copper or steel, slotted convex metal, mesh, and roundels, inspired by childhood memories of his father and glasses.
I was trying to summarise Kabiru‘s intent for the collection, but I just couldn’t. It’s more than just an interesting eyewear collection. It was a hobby and part of a dream before it turned into art.
“I call them the C-STUNNERS©. The original idea was inspired by memories of my father’s childhood where he dropped his glasses by accident and a lorry which by chance happened to be fatefully passing by ran over them, shattering them completely. It goes without saying that he received a very thorough beating from my grandfather. From that day on my father hated glasses. I admired sun-glasses though, but wearing them was an impossibility because of my father’s attitude towards them and I thus decided that when I grew up I would pick up from where the lorry left off. Many of my friends despised me as I continued nurturing that dream, along with the additional name calling while being told that it was all nonsense. The argument was that it was a strange way of art. What they never knew was that this was my dream and I had made it my hobby as well. Now all grown up this dream has come to pass and now I have my own eyewear line which I call THE C-STUNNERS. I have realized the dream and as my grandfather once said “When you truly dream a dream of your lifetime, never go back to sleep” and I, well, I am neither relenting nor dozing back to sleep. C-Stunners have rocked the regional media and more so the tastes and imagination of art lovers with local television stations having interviews and discussions about them. The press have had columns and pages dedicated to them. My dream is to make them the classic choice of even aliens, who are beyond the international levels. I have been arrested once for almost 8 hours because of wearing them. For now, the sky is the limit”.
I love how in art allows you to create the impossible into the possible!
SOURCE: CYRUS KABITU, AFRICAN COLOURS & THE EAST AFRICAN
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