The Wick - Interview Celebrated Curator Shiro Muchiri

Monday Muse

Interview Celebrated Curator Shiro Muchiri

Interview

Shiro Muchiri

31 July 2023

Interview

Shiro Muchiri

31 July 2023

London-based designer and gallerist Shiro Muchiri is on a mission to involve as many creative voices in the art world, amplifying and supporting emerging artists, designers and craftspeople and the cultures they represent.

To help make space for those that have previously gone unheard, she launched SoShiro in September 2020. Combining her love of art and architecture (she has also worked internationally as an interior architect), the collaborative platform, located in a five-storey Georgian townhouse in Marylebone, regularly hosts guest exhibitions, shows and private events. In just three short years, it has nurtured a global network of artists from craftspeople and fabricators in Kenya to Japan.

We found out what drives its driving force…

THE WICK: What makes you get up in the morning?

Shiro Muchiri: My daily inspiration stems from the prospect of creating projects and experiences that will enable art lovers from around the world to continue learning about our rich and diverse heritage of creativity – from all parts of the world. The unifying ability of art is immeasurable, and a powerful tool that can educate us about each other, expanding our imaginations, perceptions and ultimately, positively influencing how we interact with each other.

My work and experience have taught me that there are always valuable lessons about humanity that can be learnt from exploring the different cultures in our world, and these lessons make us better human beings – we see further, empathise more and love more.

TW: Tell us about SoShiro.

SM: SoShiro is a collaborative platform, consultancy, event space and shop. Through our consultancy, we work with developers, architects, interior designers and brands to put together art-led proposals and experiences that connect built environments to communities and brands to new audiences. Our gallery space also serves as an inspiring event space for meaningful connection for corporates, cultural groups, and individual private events. Our space looks like a home and feels like a home, I often get asked if I live in the SoShiro gallery space! At SoShiro we also develop furniture collections with creative workshops, artists and designers. These storytelling collectible art pieces and future heirlooms are functional and available for sale through our gallery shop and partners.

TW: In which way does your Kenyan heritage inform your work?

SM: My Kenyan heritage is influential in my work in many ways. I was born and grew up in Nairobi where I return once or twice a year to visit my family. Nairobi is composed of different cultural communities – Indian, Arab, European etc., I was taught to embrace and enjoy all these different cultures. As I set up SoShiro, I also embarked on a project of developing a fragrance for the gallery space. The fragrance was inspired by my Kenyan roots and growing up in the Rift Valley, where nature’s vastness, the high skies and smell of soil and rain was ever present. My room and body fragrance, called Desert Colours Viridescent, was born out of these memories and experiences. The fragrance has a wild scent, with ingredients such as hay, patchouli and pink peppercorn notes to give an uplifting result.

TW: What is the exhibition or moment you are most proud of?

SM: It warms my heart that SoShiro has been able to bring art, craft and design in a different way to the art scene in London. Being able to offer a different way of interacting with art is the realisation of something I have always been passionate about. Seeing people relax and feel at home while they enjoy museum-quality art pieces is wonderful. The pieces are also within the context of a home, which gives a whole new and different experience. Great friendships and collaborations have been conceived in our space. The bringing together of curious, progressive individuals in the way that we do makes me feel proud of what we do.

“The unifying ability of art is immeasurable, and a powerful tool that can educate us about each other, expanding our imaginations.”

TW: What do you see the future of the art gallery to be?

SM: My hope is for the gallery to always remain a place for discovery. A place that will continue to attract great minds and great ideas – and be able to continue to realise these ideas in an imaginative and dynamic way for our art-loving community worldwide.

TW: Where do you look for new talent?

SM: We look everywhere for new talent, and into every creative discipline. We are particularly interested in community-oriented artists. Artists who are storytellers and custodians of the creative heritage, craftmanship and cultural narratives of their communities. We have had the great privilege of introducing artists such as Alexandre Arrechea and Lulama Wolf to London.

TW: How does your Art in Architecture initiative, which you launched this year, drive toward a more accessible art market?

SM: Accessible art and creativity is much needed in London. Art in Architecture is a concept I have envisioned for many years. The opportunity to launch it in London earlier this year was extremely special to me. At the moment, there is a lot of talk about building more, more and more. We spend a lot of our lives within built environments, and these environments possess great opportunities to inspire us with art and storytelling.

Art in Architecture is about making architecture about the people. We are hugely influenced by the space we inhabit, and therefore we should use this magical interaction between people and architecture to make art more freely accessible. I do not mean paintings and murals all over building facades. What I mean is using art to connect buildings to the cultures, and local narratives of where these buildings are placed and the people they serve.

TW: If you could own any artwork, what would it be?

SM: I would like to see and own artworks that have been created through collaborations between accomplished artists and thinkers, for an unadulterated view of what would emerge from a hybrid of two different worlds of great ideas. Art provokes creativity and thought. Being able to see works that have been imagined by more than one great individual creative or artist would blow open new territories for our minds to explore, more unimaginable ways to get inspired. As a curator you always want to see how creative ideas flow together or inspire together, and this would be a curatorial dimension I would love to explore more.

TW: What is your go-to fashion brand to wear at an exhibition opening?

SM: I love fashion and I wore a Junya Watanabe dress for the opening of SoShiro. I find Watanabe’s fashion pieces liberating and sculptural with a discreet confident use of colour. His pieces leave plenty of room for the wearer to express themselves in how they choose to wear or style his clothes. He explores different cultural aesthetics and brings to fashion many intriguing creations that are beautiful in the way they are radical.

TW: What one piece of advice would you give your younger self?

SM: The one piece of advice I would give my younger self is to appreciate special moments more. Take more time to savour them and don’t rush onto the next challenge or task quite so quickly. As time flows by, these special moments become important life-markers. Happy memories sustain you with joy as you progress through life. If you can, pause more, and bask in the warmth of the sun’s rays if you hit upon them and, of course, see as much art as you can along the way.

TW: Who is your ultimate Monday Muse?

SM: My Monday Muse is an evening drive through the magical Maasai Mara in Kenya, enjoying the pure wildness of nature. I experience a special earthing moment when there, a true escape for my thoughts to wonder.