His barkcloth paper gives old
material new image
Dominic Muwanguzi
How does someone in Uganda with
limited formal education end up collaborating with a top British university on
a groundbreaking innovation? That is the questions that Ugandan artist Mathias
Tusiime’s collaboration with Newcastle University in England on the subject of
recycling and reusing evokes.
Some people who know Tusiime are,
however, not surprised.
Dr. Margaret Nagawa of the faculty
of Fine Arts at Makerere where Tusiime is involved in several activities as a
non- academic staff member says his interact with both lecturers and students
has exposed him to the elements of fine art. But Tusiime’s limited access to
art materials because of minimal resources has influenced him to create his own
approaches and media. He has used materials that litter campus; like chewing
gum, sugar-cane husks and even grass in his works. In the process, he has been
able to create alternative media for other artists to work with under his
Uganda Community Art and Skill Development Recycling (UCASDR) project.
But is his latest venture that is
causing waves even on the international scene. Tusiime has apparently picked
barkcloth, a material that has been used profusely by artists as traditional
media, and given it a new contemporary lease of life; as paper.
Barkcloth is traditional fabric that
is mostly synonymous with Baganda culture. The organic fibre is derived from
Mutuba tree (Ficus Natalensis) whose bark is beaten create a fine
dark/light-brown textile material used as traditional garb or object for
cultural festivities. When it has been used in contemporary art, it has been
mainly because of its symbolic cultural value. The modernist Uganda artist, Dr.
Pilkington Ssengendo who passed away in 2015, used it as a motif to allude to
his Ganda traditional cultural background.
But well-known artists like Jjuuko
Hoods, Ronald Ronex Ahimbisibwe and Sanaa Gateja have incorporated it into for
its aesthetic benefits, suggest a primal message, promote cultural
conservation, and an attempt to marry the tradition and contemporary.
Aesthetically, barkcloth lures the
audience into an artwork because of its texture and monochromic visual charm.
But barkcloth is also a fragile fabric susceptible to decay if not handled
well. It also carries baggage as a cultural tool sometimes used in
rituals, and is stereotypically deemed unfit to use as a canvas.
Such attributes motivated Tusiime to
create a possible alternative to this organic fabric, which turns out to be
barkcloth paper.
Under his UCASDR, he regularly
researches recycling and renewing both organic and synthetic objects. In the
case of barkcloth, the artist found it could benefit from improving its
preservation and dilution of its ritualistic attributes.
“It is now barkcloth paper,” he says
of his new product, “It is different from the traditional barkcloth in terms of
texture and color. I hope everyone will feel comfortable working with it.”
The paper he has created is of a
thicker texture than ordinary paper which makes it almost similar to synthetic
canvas. His process involves soaking the traditional barkcloth in water,
beating it down further, and drying it. No synthetic chemical are added in
order to preserve the paper’s barkcloth element. Working with local community
of artisans, he produces large chunks of barkcloth paper that is on high demand
by his contemporaries and some student artists at the College of Engineering,
Design and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University.
Tusiime’s creativity and notion of
recycling add to the conversation of culture and environment that dominates
many art forums and festivals globally. Tusiime’s barkcloth paper can be seen
at the UCASDR offices in in Katooke, Nasaana, Wakiso District.
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