Claudia Atieno

artistic interpretation of Claudia by Tea (@vonkarmic on tumblr)

### Family

Renée (grandmother), Roimata Mangakāhia (lover), Pavel Zubov (ex-lover), Aimée Layeni (sister, implied), unnamed mother and sister(s), unnamed father and brothers (allegedly), unnamed dog

### Known Physical Features

Dark skin; dark, long braided hair; green eyes; glasses

### First Mentioned

Season 2, Cassette 0: Karikari Contemporary (1969)

**Claudia** is the main subject of season 2 of Within the Wires. She was an acclaimed artist of the New Society and had many exhibitions hosted of her work, some of which had an accompanying audio guide narrated by her close friend and lover, Roimata Mangakāhia.

> *"It is impossible to discuss Claudia Atieno's cityscapes without discussing her politics. Which is difficult, as she herself never discusses them with anyone."* **--Roimata in *El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (1974)***
>
>

## Biography

### Early Life

Claudia grew up in Tanzania in the dying days of the Great Reckoning, alongside Lake Victoria. She lived in a house with a yellow door with her mother and two sisters until she was 13 years old. At some point during her childhood, she visited New York City before it was mostly destroyed. Because the systems of the Society were still being put into place when Claudia was growing up, her memories from before being ten years old were allegedly not erased, and she continued to remember her family throughout her life although she could not contact them. However, despite her initial family portrait consisting of only her mother, two sisters, and a dog, a drawing of her family produced after she was removed to a Programming Centre changed to include a father, one less sister, three brothers, and no dog (and also omitted herself). It could therefore be reasonably assumed that her memory was at least somewhat modified.

When she was 13, she was moved to a Programming Centre and spent her adolescence there. She developed artistic talent during her teenage years and through her drawings could be seen her studies of other people, taking particular interest in an apparent forbidden love between two of her fellow residents. She seemed to distance herself from others in her art, perhaps indicating the isolation she felt. Roimata suspected that she may have kept in contact with her sister, as there appeared to be a rendering of her among these adolescent drawings, and implied that she suspected the sister to be Aimée Layeni.

Vishwathi Ramadoss claimed that Claudia and "her sister" did not attend the same school, but pointed to a sketch of Claudia watching her sister as proof that she would secretly visit her. It is unclear if Ramadoss was referring to a university or college Claudia's sister attended, or if she meant they went to different Programming Centres. It is possible that the sister Ramadoss referred to was not Aimée but a different sister.

Claudia continued to receive letters and voice recordings from her grandmother, Renée, for a time, although she was forbidden from talking about her family. Claudia was also described as Renée's "last remaining" grandchild, although it had also been implied that at least one of her sisters was also still alive.

### Rise to Fame

She was present in the art world in the 50s, but would not gain significant influence until later in her career. Her work was well-regarded by collectors such as Vivienne Torrance and Bernice Jones, but was not well-known. In 1953, Michael Witten suggested requesting a commission from Atieno for a performance of the play "The Topaz Window." He claimed that he could get in touch with her through Archie MacPherson, which also suggested that she was not widely or publicly available for commission during this time. Her work was exhibited in the Royal Ontario Museum in spring of 1955.

Claudia had an apartment in Mwanza, but traveled all over the globe. In the early 60s, she traveled with Cassandra Reza, at one point visiting the former Dutch East Indies. She painted "The Arising" while in Kota Tua, Jakarta. In 1962, she lived in Berkshire in the former United States, where she was a resident artist for the museum. "Still Life with Orchid" was her first work to gain international critical attention in that year. In 1965, she met Pavel Zubov in St. Petersburg.

### The Cornwall House

By 1970, she lived mainly in Cornwall, in a house on an island off the coast. She often hosted parties, and guests came and went with frequency, including her lovers such as Pavel, Cassandra, Chrisette, and Roimata. Roimata was the only one to stay with Claudia long-term, which she did until 1972 when Claudia disappeared.

In 1970, Roimata interviewed Claudia at the Café Joyeaux, and then narrated the audio guide for the Tate Modern museum. Roimata had idolised Atieno for a long time and was nervous about meeting her, and in a rush to make a good impression, aggravated Atieno into smashing a plate. The two met again on better terms, several times, and got to know each other well. Claudia visited Roimata's flat in Plymouth occassionally, but not after 1970, as she found it much too small. Eventually, Claudia invited Roimata to finish the interview at her home. Claudia's newest work as of the 1971 Tate Modern guide was "Woman in Bath" which depicted Roimata bathing in the Cornwall house on her first night there.

The following references content that only appeared in the official transcripts available on Patreon and may not be canon. *Learn More*

According to Roimata, the cat in the second rendition of "Self-Portrait with Cat" was named Matryoshka. She was a haggard stray who appeared on the island one day, and none of them (Claudia, Roimata, or Pavel) could figure out how she had got there, as it was impossible for her to have swum from the mainland and the motorboat was too small for her to stow away on. She was named Matryoshka because when Pavel first found her, she was pregnant.

End of Patreon-exclsuive content.

In the months leading up to her disappearance, the subjects of her art became much less grand. According to Roimata, she was obsessed with tiny details, and looked for patterns in everyday randomness. During this time she produced 15 works depicting rubbish. In general her works avoided anything explicitly political, most likely out of her fear of the conspiracies she believed in. Roimata encouraged her to be bolder with her work, but she ultimately would rather play it safe, even claiming that she destroyed her painting "Lamp" in order to prevent it going on display.

#### Disappearance

The exact details of her disappearance and death are difficult to pin down. In 1973, Roimata stated that the last anyone had seen of Claudia, she was going into the market in town in late October. Pavel had arrived, despite Claudia having broken up with him some time before, although this was not remarked upon as odd and nor did Roimata seem to suspect any foul play on his part. She then left to give a lecture in Amsterdam.

In 1978, the story changed. Roimata claimed that the last time she had seen her was the evening of March 31st, and that she had been behind the house in the garden while Roimata was diving off the cliffs. Guests were arriving for a party, although she only remembered a quiet dinner, and she struggled to recall where and why she had left the house. She expressed confusion over why Pavel had been at the house to report Claudia missing on April 16th, and then was suddenly sure that Claudia had actually disappeared in the autumn.

Parts of Claudia's body were found in 1978. Bone and clothes washed up on a beach on St. Agnes Island. In 1980, some of Claudia's teeth and part of her torso was found. It was apparently evident from the way that torso had been crushed that she had fallen from a height. An 8-year-old girl was the one that found the body, as it was discovered near one of the Society's collective homes, and she was later sent for retraining at the Institute.

In 1979, Roimata narrated audio guide including not just Claudia's work, but also her own and Vanessa Nguyen's. Although it had been alluded to before, at this point it became explicit that Claudia had plagiarised a lot of her work. In many cases, she had taken an unfinished concept that she had seen from an artist acquaintance and made it her own, often discrediting the original artist in the process. Roimata claimed that everybody close to Claudia knew that she did this on some level, although it seems at least in her case that she suppressed that information because of her stubborn admiration for Claudia.

In 1981, Roimata talked about, supposedly, the last time she had seen Claudia in 1972. The story was, again, different from the other times she had referred to it. She mentioned that at the time she left for Amsterdam, Claudia had been at the cliffs on the island. It was low tide, and after their goodbyes before she left, Claudia had said "I'm going to take the plunge." Roimata did not inform her that the tide was too low to safely jump from the cliffs.

## Additional info

* The name "Claudia" means "lame" (impaired) or "enclosed"
* An original piece of Claudia's was a part of Vivienne Witten's collection of art in 1953, which she was very proud of.
* In 1953, Vivienne Witten owned a collection of modern art that she was proud to cultivate, including an original piece by Claudia. Sometime in the next eight years, Bernice Jones would commission a portrait of Vivienne holding her cat, Connie, which is possibly the painting that would eventually become known as "Self-Portrait with Cat" by Atieno.
	+ The fact that the subject of this painting is easily mistakable for Claudia herself implies that she and Vivienne are very similar-looking, possibly identical twins or at least sisters. It's possible if this is true that other works of Atieno's believed to be self-portraits, such as "Child and Damselfly", were also in fact depicting Vivienne.
* Roimata refers to Claudia's home country as Tanzania, but she also says it was dissipated in 1936, which means it likely would have been actually known as "Tanganyika", a name that it held until 1964 in our world. She also mentions that the Ibo people were displaced from Mwanza by English-speaking settlers, but this is strange since Ibo (or Igbo) people typically come from Western Africa, not Eastern Africa.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Season 2, Cassette #0: Karikari Contemporary (1969)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Season 2, Cassette #1: Tate Modern (1971)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Season 2, Cassette #5: Van Gogh Museum (1977)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Season 2, Cassette #6: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1978)
5. ↑ Season 3, Reel #2: August 13, 1953
6. ↑ Season 3, Reel #9: September 13, 1954
7. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #3: El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (1974)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Season 2, Cassette #2: Ulster Museum (1973)
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Season 2, Cassette #8: Ohara Museum of Art (1979)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Season 2, Cassette #4: Bardo Museum (1975)
11. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #7: Sree Chitra Art Gallery (1979)
12. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #9: Metropolitan Museum of Art (1981)
13. ↑ History of Tanzania - Wikipedia
14. ↑ Igbo people - Wikipedia