Darshana Raja, a Kenyan born and bred in the United Kingdom who came back in 2017, has been nominated for the prestigious 2020 Loewe Craft Prize in Paris.

She is the only African to make it to the list of 30 finalists out of the 2,920 submissions that were made by participants from around the globe as at October 2019.

Her work, called the ‘Whole hole’ a two-metre circular piece, which survived the initial stages, is already in France and will be exhibited at the Musee Des Arts Decoratif within the Palais Louvre for two months this year.

The mother of three says she is elated to have made it to a platform she had only imagined. She revealed that she would not have joined the competition if it was not for a friend who referred her to his acquaintance based in the US who asked for photos of her artwork, and urged her to submit them.

ARTS COURSE

Ms Raja took an arts course that dealt with metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, plastics and granite at the University of Brighton in the UK.

“It is all about learning new skills daily. My work is idea-based. I sit down, get an idea and get materials that suit the idea to bring it to life,” Ms Raja said.

She often gets the wood she uses from local furniture makers’ waste. As much as she would not describe herself as an environmentalist or a conservationist, she knows that it is essential to utilise what would have otherwise been useless and turn it to something beautiful. Her work is centred on making waste more aesthetic.