Jared Onyango

Credit: Haba na Haba International Festival

Jared ONYANGO's interests are in choreography, writing, everyday happenings, urban spaces and environmental topics. He has been exploring movements and behaviours of people in public spaces. Jared is one of the founding members of Tempo Arts Centre, a community green space located in Lucky Summer Estate, approximately 11 kilometres northeast of Nairobi's central business district.

Jared is a Pina Bausch Foundation 2016 fellow for dance and choreography where he worked with Italian choreographer Francesco Scavetta in Sweden. Jared is an ICA Fellow with the University of Cape Town, where he presented a digital version of Jua Kali Pedestrian project for the University’s website. 

In February 2021, his performance; Jua Kali Pedestrian, was presented at the French Cultural Centre in Made in Eastlando for the 2021 edition of ‘La Nuit des Idees’ (The Night of Ideas). He has collaborated in projects like Choreolab (June 2017) - a project between artists from Kenya and Germany for the Node Festival in Frankfurt, Germany, and Lea Pischke (November 2021), a Berlin based dancer and choreographer in Jua Kali Pedestrian project which premiered in Berlin, Germany. Commissioned for the KLAART Festivals (August 2018), - Jua Kali Pedestrian for the public spaces within Kampala city. 

His other works include;- Body In A Box (May 2018), a multi-media project performed at the Goethe Institut Nairobi and Jaridu (2020) - solo dance exploring movements, space, representation and musicality. His published writings include; Time lost along the way: Gone or Lost? Published by Imagined Theatres, Orodha Oracle published in Arts from Africa anthology, Chokora Chronicles published by AfriKesho online magazine, Jua Kali Pedestrian published by Nairobi Contemporary East Africa arts magazine.

Jared ONYANGO was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya where he lives and work in. 

Overarching praxis statement:

I'm a Jua Kali nomad. Jua Kali, a Swahili word translates to ‘’hot sun.’’ I see my practice as a kind of game I enjoy having with myself, with cities, with people, with objects etc. Experimenting is key, whether devised or through improvisation. Structured to mirror patterns  and repetitions inherent in everyday life and freely improvised to reflect life’s  contingencies. 

Current art and/or research interest:

Lately I have also been inspired by the term; Orodha, in how it’s used locally as an  invaluable concept for understanding objects and their symbolic relationship with the  community. In Swahili, Orodha translates to modes of categorizing, classifying, cataloging or listing things. Orodha objects are items picked from the dumpsite, washed, repaired, and then reintroduced into the commodity cycle at cheaper prices for slum residents. 

Jua Kali and Orodha touch on these ideas of recycling and repetition. Conceptually, recycling may imply repetition or appearing more than once. These are both  practice-based terms, because everyday life is practiced. Considering how these concepts affect my life, I am currently spending more time researching, investigating and developing a practice that is embedded in these themes of repetition, recycling, and  resilience which can be shared with others. A practice which can help in understanding ourselves, our world, and the subjectivity which the Jua Kali people have  been assigned. 

More about the artist:
https://onyangojaredo.wixsite.com/jaredonyango