saturday
November 8, 2014
Living as a cleaner, lecturer
Some of the paints of Mathias
Tusiime. Photos by Ismail Kezaala.
Written,By Douglas D SSemabala
When he modestly lists his achievements as an artist, it is hard to believe
that in 1998, Mathias Tusiime’s search for employment in Kampala stationed him
as a cleaner at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of Industrial
Fine Art. He now blogs (TusiimeMathias.blogspot.com), has represented Uganda in
more than 12 African countries, and has lectured students in American
Universities.
Born in Igara, Bushenyi District, Tusiime’s education was clogged by failure
to raise fees at O-Level when he was at Bugongi Secondary School in 1994 in
Sheema District.
Forced to hunt for jobs without any form of qualification, Prof Philip
Kwesiga, (former Dean at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School)
recommended him for a job as a grounds man. “I cleaned the compound, gathered
clay for students and prepared it for their next classes. But now, I clean the
offices,” Tusiime explains, picking little crumps of dirt off a table cloth in
the gallery and repositioning it.
As a child, his creative mind drew its own imagery of what else he can make
out of different material. The gallery administrator at the school, only
identified as Hasifa, reflects this notion, arguing that Tusiime is
enthusiastic, intrigued and motivated by what he sees around him. His
interaction with students, professors and intervals as sculpture studio
assistant, contributed to his skill. He had neither held a paint brush, nor
molded clay figures before, but this pushed his creativity, thus innovation of
his own brand of canvas and locally made paper.
“I received no art training, but I am humbled by my success as an artist,”
he says, noting when Pietro Averona, the Italian Cultural Attaché, now Console
at the Italian Embassy, bought three of his pieces in 1999. “He was the first
person to buy my work. He found it original and uncontaminated,” he says.
Tusiime has since exhibited in Netherlands, Denmark, USA, Nairobi, China
(during Olympics), London and Bonham (www.bonhams.com/auctions /19513/lot/6/)
in 2013; and at the German Development Co-operation (KFW) October 8, 2014.
Tusiime recollects how Americans walked up to him on the street, some in
tears; moved by his inspiring story. “I made headlines in Florida. People
wondered how incredible professors at Makerere should be, if a cleaner could
create such work!” he said as goose bumps plastered his right hand.
“The first time I stood up to share my work with more than 600 students in
Florida, I cried…I could not believe the recognition so far from home!”
Invitations to tutor and share his work waved in from Children’s Art Center and
North Eastern University in Boston, and Apex Art, New York.
Future plans
Tusiime hopes to develop skills and innovation centres that will provide basic
skills to the unprivileged, by reaching people with talents that can be
developed, especially those without access to education. He hopes to utilise
more natural resources for Tie and dye, craft, candle bars, paper, plates, toys
and jewellery.
As a cleaner/self-made artist and researcher, he envisions a recycling plant
that can utilise garbage collected or disposed of by the university. Why not
create material or recycle to reduce export?” he asks.
Prof Philip Kwesiga, (former Dean at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell
School and his mentor) asserts that “Mathias can be anything the artist can be,
because art creates one’s own means to communicate, and he originally does this
through size and shape to show mood and feelings.”
Some of Tusiime’s most notable pieces
From Grass to Sisal, Canvas. This 2005 innovation gives illusion of a
network of coloured strings on rubber-like surface. He used recycled paint from
and grasses before improving it with maize scarves and Sisal. The first of its
kind in the world, his canvas won recognition at the Congress Library in
Washington DC, USA. It also serves as Vehicle Carpets, Sound Proof
material and covers.
Politics of Destruction. One among more than 200 pieces, this visual in
bright shades of orange, blue and green, depicts humans with fork-like fingers
hovering over their heads. This painting tackles social-economic and political
challenges of Ugandan society.
Backcloth paper. Pressed into fine pieces of smooth brown surface, this bark
of Mutuba tree, offers alternative for paper. To make backcloth relevant to
education, rather than the predominant warmth cover, Tusiime thought of
students who need where to write in the face of costly exported paper.
Challenges
When he modestly lists his achievements as an artist, it is hard to believe
that in 1998, Mathias Tusiime’s search for employment in Kampala stationed him
as a cleaner at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of Industrial
Fine Art. He now blogs (TusiimeMathias.blogspot.com), has represented Uganda in
more than 12 African countries, and has lectured students in American
Universities.
Born in Igara, Bushenyi District, Tusiime’s education was clogged by failure
to raise fees at O-Level when he was at Bugongi Secondary School in 1994 in
Sheema District.
Forced to hunt for jobs without any form of qualification, Prof Philip
Kwesiga, (former Dean at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School)
recommended him for a job as a grounds man. “I cleaned the compound, gathered
clay for students and prepared it for their next classes. But now, I clean the
offices,” Tusiime explains, picking little crumps of dirt off a table cloth in
the gallery and repositioning it.
As a child, his creative mind drew its own imagery of what else he can make
out of different material. The gallery administrator at the school, only identified
as Hasifa, reflects this notion, arguing that Tusiime is enthusiastic,
intrigued and motivated by what he sees around him. His interaction with
students, professors and intervals as sculpture studio assistant, contributed
to his skill. He had neither held a paint brush, nor molded clay figures
before, but this pushed his creativity, thus innovation of his own brand of
canvas and locally made paper.
“I received no art training, but I am humbled by my success as an artist,”
he says, noting when Pietro Averona, the Italian Cultural Attaché, now Console
at the Italian Embassy, bought three of his pieces in 1999. “He was the first
person to buy my work. He found it original and uncontaminated,” he says.
Tusiime has since exhibited in Netherlands, Denmark, USA, Nairobi, China
(during Olympics), London and Bonham (www.bonhams.com/auctions /19513/lot/6/)
in 2013; and at the German Development Co-operation (KFW) October 8, 2014.
Tusiime recollects how Americans walked up to him on the street, some in
tears; moved by his inspiring story. “I made headlines in Florida. People
wondered how incredible professors at Makerere should be, if a cleaner could
create such work!” he said as goose bumps plastered his right hand.
“The first time I stood up to share my work with more than 600 students in
Florida, I cried…I could not believe the recognition so far from home!”
Invitations to tutor and share his work waved in from Children’s Art Center and
North Eastern University in Boston, and Apex Art, New York.
Future plans
Tusiime hopes to develop skills and innovation centres that will provide basic
skills to the unprivileged, by reaching people with talents that can be
developed, especially those without access to education. He hopes to utilise
more natural resources for Tie and dye, craft, candle bars, paper, plates, toys
and jewellery.
As a cleaner/self-made artist and researcher, he envisions a recycling plant
that can utilise garbage collected or disposed of by the university. Why not
create material or recycle to reduce export?” he asks.
Prof Philip Kwesiga, (former Dean at Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell
School and his mentor) asserts that “Mathias can be anything the artist can be,
because art creates one’s own means to communicate, and he originally does this
through size and shape to show mood and feelings.”
Some of Tusiime’s most notable pieces
From Grass to Sisal, Canvas. This 2005 innovation gives illusion of a
network of coloured strings on rubber-like surface. He used recycled paint from
and grasses before improving it with maize scarves and Sisal. The first of its
kind in the world, his canvas won recognition at the Congress Library in
Washington DC, USA. It also serves as Vehicle Carpets, Sound Proof material and
covers.
Politics of Destruction. One among more than 200 pieces, this visual in
bright shades of orange, blue and green, depicts humans with fork-like fingers
hovering over their heads. This painting tackles social-economic and political
challenges of Ugandan society.
Backcloth paper. Pressed into fine pieces of smooth brown surface, this bark
of Mutuba tree, offers alternative for paper. To make backcloth relevant to
education, rather than the predominant warmth cover, Tusiime thought of
students who need where to write in the face of costly exported paper.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Living-as-a-cleaner--lecturer/-/691232/2514874/-/item/0/-/xxk7iwz/-/index.html
