Constructions Exhibition bridges gap between Artists and Artisans
Here is the link
http://startjournal.org/2015/07/constructions-exhibition-bridges-gap-between-artists-and-artisans/
By Dominic Muwanguzi
A collaborative project that involves two artists, Dr. Lilian Nabulime
of Faculty of Industrial and Fine Arts Makerere, and Dr. Andrew Burton
of Newcastle University, London showing at the Makerere Art Gallery is
themed Constructions. Like the title suggests, the artists engage in
constructing art works from found objects that are commonly found in
locales that surround them.
Burton’s affinity to create life size installations from inexpensive
materials like sisals, clay bricks, sand and bamboo conjures a visual
narrative of interacting and collaborating with the low income
communities whose livelihood depends on such materials. The artist’s
repertoire includes working in deprived communities of India and China
where a majority of people depend on the recycling sector.
In his presentation before the opening on June 10th 2015, the artist
with the aid of slides showcases his installations built from carts
carrying heavy loads of merchandise, broken glass, clay slabs molded by
women and fragments of clay bricks washed on the sea-shores. The
sculptures share a common trait of a temporary life span because of the
artist’s technique to create art works that are easily dismantled and
resembled.
The towering sculpture of wooden piggy banks (banka y’ekka), rubber
cuttings from car tyres, sisal brooms and brushes, and television
aerials, sitting at the entrance of the art gallery is symbolic of the
artist’s interaction with the local community that surrounds Makerere
University where the artist has been working for the past four weeks.
Installation
at the entrance of Makerere Art gallery constructed by Dr. Andrew
Burton, UK. Image courtesy of Makerere Art gallery
The materials where produced by individuals in Kalerwe and a family
in Mulago. In his response to the question: what was his experience as
an artist with an academic background working with artisans in these
communities, the artist responded thus, “there is a common ground that
the two share. The need to express one’s self through the production of
these objects.”
The brooms and brushes and other merchandise are essentially produced
for sale in the local markets to provide income for the families. The
raw-materials are obtained from reclaiming parts of industrially
produced goods which have come to the end of their intended use. Others
are simply collected from surroundings: fallen sticks are gathered and
tied into brushwood bundles.
Dr.
Lilian Nabulime’s hardwood feminine sculptures inviting conversation on
HIV among the rural women. Image courtesy of Makerere Art gallery
Nabulime’s displays are sculptures of hardwood with redolent objects
like soap, blades and aluminum plates. These feminine sculptures evoke
her femininity as a woman artist and also continue her visual discourse
of stimulating dialogue on HIV among Ugandan women with low levels of
education (the subject of HIV remains a taboo in many rural communities,
hence its wide spread amongst the rural woman). The latter formed part
of her doctoral thesis at the Newcastle University in 2009 where she met
Dr. Burton.
Her installations of firewood bundles sitting either horizontally or
vertically imbue the lifestyle of the rural woman who has an up-hill
task of providing for her family despite her dismal economic resources.
Firewood collecting still remains the duty of the woman in many rural
homes across the continent. It is also the most viable form of energy
used to cook for many households.
The installations also represent the relationship between the
traditional and contemporary that is explored in the contemporary arts
today.
The academics’ work share space with Mathias Tusiime’s paintings from
the Exhibition, Art in the Community. Tusiime’s work is evocative of the
local community because of the materials he uses to create his art. The
artist who doubles as a cleaner at the Institute collects both organic
and synthetic materials dumped on the campus and his community in
Nansana, a city suburb to produce art that explores and discusses social
issues that face people from low-privileged communities.
Dr.
Andrew Burton’s Installation of sisal and bamboo within the gallery
space. In the background is Mathias Tusiime exhibition, Art and the
community. Image courtesy of Makerere Art gallery.
In an attempt to bridge relationship between artists and artisans,
these artists have used art as an agent of regeneration and education.
This project is situated within the ongoing debate into the potentiality
within the local and the collaborative using social mechanisms of
negotiations, conceptualization, development and production.
Constructions, is bound into community practice and collaboration within
a framework of socially engaged and participatory art and temporary
practice. The culmination is a hybrid between exhibition, public
installation and event created to reflect everyday contexts.
Andrew Burton is an artist and professor of Fine Art at Newcastle
University, UK. He has displayed his installations at the National
Crafts Museum, New Delhi and Shanghai World Expo, and participated in
Gyeonngi Biennale (Korea 2015).
Lilian Nabulime is Senior Lecturer and former Head of the Sculpture
Department in the School of Industrial art and Fine Arts, Makerere
University, Kampala. She has displayed
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nicap/assets/documents/2015_31_AndrewBurton_Constructions2.pdf
