Kamau Ng’ang’a is a young artist working with sculpture, installations, and material gathered from public media archives. At Kunstenlab, he is constructing a large-scale installation featuring two life-sized puppets as the intriguing lead roles. He describes ‘You’re a Lucky Fellow Mr. Smith’ as a kind of puppet show about how the media is used to fabricate societal truths and norms, and how specifically people who can conform to those norms are persuaded to believe in them. A puppet show about a puppet show.

The exhibition space is filled with a wooden structure that sits somewhere between a theater set and a cultural-historical diorama. On the stage, alongside a collection of furniture suggesting various rooms of a home, we see two wooden figures: Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Audio clips from the outside world intrude upon the domestic reality of these two protagonists from multiple angles. Kamau gathered these fragments from the US National Archives. We hear, among others, the voices of various past presidents (Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush), members of their teams, and various influential figures. The way the artist has selected and arranged these clips highlights how, during that era, a specific worldview and a desired, normative Western identity were actively promoted in America.

Kamau is fascinated by the idea of ​​identity as a kind of performance—enacted outwardly based on underlying cultural and societal norms. While his earlier works focused primarily on the performance itself, this new piece aims to examine the system that generates those norms. The media plays a significant role in this, as influencing the information people can access allows for the subtle dissemination of a perceived truth or norm. He illustrates this using various moments from American history. For instance, the installation features audio clips of George H. W. Bush speaking about the ‘war on drugs’—a label used to implement policies that primarily served the hidden agendas of those in power. 

The ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ figures in the exhibition embody the archetype of the standard, white, heteronormative American. They represent the ideal, uncritical recipients of media-driven influence. Their characters and domestic setting are rooted in 20th-century ideals propagated through films, advertisements, and other media. At several points during the exhibition, Mr. and Mrs. Smith come to life; for the first time in his artistic practice, Kamau Ng’ang’a uses the installation as a stage for a performance. He acts as the puppeteer, using audio clips from 1930s American films to offer a glimpse into the privileged lives of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Kamau Ng’ang’a’s work challenges you to reflect on the foundations of your identity and the ways in which you project it—both consciously and unconsciously—to the outside world. Where do our worldview and our expectations regarding who we are and how we behave originate? And what purposes do they serve? By using America’s past as an allegory, we can gain the necessary distance to examine the underlying mechanisms that persist to this day. Especially in these times, when the puppeteering behind-the-scenes is becoming increasingly visible, that awareness can be the key to change.

Opening & performance
The exhibition opens on Saturday, October 10, at 4:00 PM, alongside the exhibition by Stephan Blumenschein. Prior to the opening, from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM, Kamau will give a performance within his installation.