Echoes at Amasaka Art gallery

Three young emerging artists use their bodies and biographies as site and material for experimentation

Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Contemporary art will necessarily require the making of art out of materials that surround us everyday. It is one of the tenets of this type of art that distinguishes it from other forms of art before. The ongoing exhibition Echoes showing at Amasaka Art gallery in Kampala echoes this ethos with showcasing works of three young emerging artists who’re using their own bodies and biographies as material and site of experimentation. As such , each of these artists works with what they’re most familiar but also inmate with- their own bodies or personal experiences- to produce artworks that engage, provoke and stimulate the attention of the viewer. They compliment such undertaking by working in a variety of medium including painting, photography, digital printing/ layering and collage.

The series of the human figure with blacked out eyes by Natongo Olivia Mary are visually arresting. They will somehow remind the viewer of the images of masquerades at African traditional cultural festivities and as such, immediately engulf the attention of the viewer with their presence. The highly textured and patterned garments and intricate body design in black and white is very noticeable and cannot be ignored. The colour black and white plus the blacked out eyes renders a sense of mysticism in the artworks as if they were spiritual goddess . Indeed, through such experimentation where the artist becomes defiant and asserts control over her self image; evident with the motif of blacked out eyes; she reshuffles the narratives surrounding power, identity and representation. Here it becomes apparent that the artist is and has always been uncomfortable with the prejudice encountered by women within the community they live in. The artist subverts this social prejudice towards women by presenting her self image as a goddess draped in bold and beautiful ornaments.

Ethel Aanyu deploys herself as a model in her photography and therefore become an entry point to the conversations she wants to instigate in her photographic compositions. Her compositions are full of digital layering involving positive and negative black and white images which are visually dramatic to the viewer’s gaze. Through the technique of self reflection, she is able to be in touch with her inner self. Nonetheless , this approach affords her an opportunity to connect with her audience who at once become familiar with her personal experiences. These seemingly haunting portraits in the exhibition are therefore a metaphor to conversations on the human condition, which incidentally is a recurrent topic in her work- and how it influences behaviour and relationships. As a young person growing up in a fast paced world, this interest is highly justifiable because of the many questions but few answers that pop up in contemporary society.

It is this continuous expression and dialogue with the self that still dominates Allan Kakonkye’s artistic practice. The artist’s works straddle the identity of collage and portraiture with human figures taking on different poses, perhaps as a metaphor to the wide raging nature of the human condition and behaviour. On close observation, the artworks reveal burnt and discoloured fragments of aluminum foil. This repurposed material is an allusion to the artist’s childhood experiences where he collected scrap metal and sold it to traders who manipulated it to produce other objects. Here the technique of working with such found objects relives his childhood memories and provides a connection between the past and present.

Through the technique of drawing on their personal experiences and deploying their self image in the artworks, each of the three artists creates echoes for themselves. The echoes they create are essential establishing themselves as artists who’re pushing the boundaries of their artistic practice. More so, the conversations they create through their experimental processes of working are critical in opening up further conversations on subjects of gender, identity and human relations.

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The exhibition run from 25th July 2023 to15th August 2023 at Amasaka Art gallery in Bukoto, Kampala.