An Ode To Endless Beauty

Uganda Tue 09-03-2010

An Ode To Endless Beauty
By Sophie Alal

A two-man show currently at Tulifanya Gallery in Kampala unites, for the first time, two previous winners of the coveted ‘Discoveries Young Artists’ Exhibition’ of 2007 and 2009 Ronald ‘Ro’ Odokotho and Yusuf Kiire Ngula respectively.

The artists, whose works are on show from February 20th to March 13th 2010, work exclusively in acrylics.

Untitled by Yusuf Ngula

Born in 1986, Ngula says that from secondary school, he realized that there was a side to him that was "arty", even though his parents dictated different avenues that would make it easier for their children to succeed in life. It was not by accident but sheer determination, that he pursued his interest in art.

And although circumstances dictated that he pursue a more tenable career, even after graduating from the Makerere Business School, he continued to see art as a “side business.”

As a self-taught artist, his work is different from what we have experienced from formally trained artists. He has cleared up any doubts about his ability by collaborating with a couple of renowned Ugandan contemporary artists liked Paulo Akiiki, Mark Kassi, Ismail Damba, Juuko Hood and Yusuf Ssali – collaborations that undoubtedly helped him hone his craft.

He paints subjects based on the two great influences of modern times; war and television.

“I can’t say my art is based upon African art - in Uganda, someone telling you that?” He shakes his head incredulously. “Except if he is from the sixties. But we have matured; in front of TV, the books we read, from comics and movies we watch, from the language we talk to what we are taught in school. The context applies in my art.”

He has complete control over his art, with clarity of exposition. The painting ‘Souls For Badges’ is the only one titled. At 47.5cm by 41.5cm, it tells the tale of watching too much television, World War films, and looking back at the later president of Uganda, Idi Amin Dada’s militarism - which was notable for among other things, having a functioning air force. The painting was his interpretation of the dual role of airplanes, and fact that soldiers are rated highly only if they win.

“Souls For Badges” holds a seriousness that is channeled through his use of colour. Over a scorched, brown earth, highlighted with bursts of orange, the aerial view is split by menacing dark planes, some in muted shades of brown while others are grey and are flying in formation towards left of the canvas.

At the right of the canvas, the second formation has two silvery planes and a light green one. All are flying south, departing from the reddish brown to blue air space. The blue signifies peace above the ground over which they are flying.

Yusuf Ngula brings with his paintings delight as well as some sternness. An untitled painting depicts a tortoise and a giraffe walking away from each other. The giraffe’s head is in the blue sky while the tortoise is under a large leaf. The tortoise wears a bow tie. In between the two stylised creatures are a medal and a silver coin highlighted by rays of yellow radiating away from it.

Both turn their heads to look back at the other. It is serious and also light-hearted, for the clash of cultures is most often experienced as a perceived strangeness.

In another series of untitled paintings, his world takes us to the sea bed, teeming with colourful, aquatic life. Fishes dart about as seahorses and shellfish anchor onto delicate coral.

"Waterbird" by Ronald ‘Ro’ Odokotho

Looking at what has happened to him since April of 2009 when he decided to get serious, he has risen quickly from obscurity. He looks set to bring a new dimension to Ugandan art.

Odokotho who is the more experienced of the two, has been painting since 2004. At the moment he is in an experimental phase which he believes should lead him to launch a new art movement.

With his limited number of works, he investigates the colourful interactions among different forms of life.

“You can never exhaust all the patterns from fruits, leaves and flowers,” Ronald ‘Ro’ Odokotho, 26, says adding it is the case because their beauty lies in their intricacy.

A couple of black frames hold glazed 15cm by 15 centimetre ceramic tiles decorated in bright reds, yellows and orange finished with a coat of varnish. One of them, in a plain black frame, is of a red variety, possibly a tulip bud. Nestled up to it is the dark and heavy head of a grass flower.

A water bird, possibly a goose, swims towards a lily pad which is a burst of streaky colour. Inside its belly is a large pristine egg, which is probably a metaphor for life and continuity. Though the lily pad floats above water, it still gets sustenance from muddy water while supporting a pure flower.

Every image on the canvas is rendered from behind a veil of what looks like cell membranes, but are actually from the spiky formations on the skin of the fenne, or jackfruit in Luganda.

Odokotho said that he sees the jackfruit as “unique but not colourful,” therefore he had to find a way of incorporating it into his art.

His paintings are intricately depicted, and exquisitely executed. They are like an ode to the endless beauty and complexity of designs in nature.

These two artists demonstrate a tremendous itch to break away from the standards of cataloguing, tending not to give the usual details about each painting such as size, title and so on.

When this itch is scratched, it becomes a curator’s nightmare. Casual gallery visitors may shrug this off by saying Oh well they are just young people leave them be, but agents or buyers might be less forgiving.

The supporting content of the exhibition included labels without titles or dimensions, but bore the materials used and the price of each. This practice would point to either the need for something to fill up the empty exhibition spaces or plain old lack of attention to detail.

This goes to show what an awful trifle some of the cultural resources of this period are taken to be. It seems most disturbing that these wonderful artists are blithely unaware of the currently accepted standards of curating. In the future, their good work may descend into obscurity.

Odokotho, having participated in the 2007 East Africa Art Biennale in Tanzania, should have known better than to leave most of his pieces at the mercy of discerning viewers, who might want more information about the story behind each painting.

Read other stories from Uganda

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Death Would Be Better If It Wasn't The End Of Life

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