Theresa Musoke beats the odds to make art

The octogenarian has crossed boundaries of cultural stereotype and age to remain relevant

| DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | At more than Seventy- five years old, Theresa Musoke is still making art. Her recent exhibition in Nairobi, underscores her indefatiable energy and zeal   to remain in the front seat of regional contemporary art. She is the enduring and resilient artist who has been producing art since the mid 1960s when she graduated from Margaret Trowell School of Fine art. She did not only make headlines as one of the very few female artists graduating from the art school at the time, but she walked away with the coveted Margaret Trowell prize  that was awarded to students who had exhibited distinguished artistic abilities during their schooling. This was not an easy feat because the accolade had previously fallen in the hands of male students.  Since then,  her name has been synonymous with excellence and crossing boundaries that are rarely traversed by the female gender. Her art has also over the years charted this path; interrogating themes of feminity and womanhood in a patriarchal  society that is filled with prejudice of the other.

But like the unquenched passion she exhibits in her approach to  art production, she is equally versatile as an artist. Musoke is a printmaker, painter and sculptor and works with a diversity of media like bark cloth, acrylics and batik to illustrate her wide raging approach to art. Similarly, she is has not limited her artistic narrative to subvert the stereotype her contemporaries encounter in everyday life, but  has severally metaphorically  explored themes of wildlife and nature, political turbulence and  injustices, and humanity. In one of her famous painting titled, Cat Ghosts1960s  she subtly tackled the theme of political and social unrest that dominated the country during the last half of  the decade. The surrealistic painting depicts ghostly creatures engulfed in what appears to be flames. The ferocity of these beastly figures is suggested by their distorted facial expressions that give an impression that they hungry and ready to devour their enemy.  This depiction evokes feelings of fear, anger and hatred that gripped the country during this period.

Yet according to some scholars, the painting may have marked her genesis of working with wildlife as a metaphor to wide- raging social and cultural issues of everyday life. Musoke has in recent years been known by the wildlife imagery in her paintings, mostly Antelope, Zebra and Giraffe, that stimulate conversations on wildlife conservation. The imagery may also insinuate her perception of nature as an inspiration to her astonishing vitality. At more than 75 years, Musoke emerges as a youthful adult who enjoys telling jokes and an exuberant laughter. In all this, she shows no sign of physical inadequacies that can limit her artistic output . Her energy and positive outlook to life,  suggests a defiance to the stereotypical tendencies of a conservative society she was born in. At her age, society would expect her to be sulky and depressed; clutching on doors and walls seeking for physical support.

But she has beaten all odds to keep on making art. In doing so, she has  broken barriers of exclusion and low self-esteem  that women artists of her era and thereafter, encounter in a male dominated profession. With her determination to stay relevant in a fast transforming globalized art world, she has  legitimized her position as one of the leading female artists from the African continent. In creating such a precedent, she has filled many young female artists locally and regionally with the confidence and  vigour  to pursue greater heights for their art.

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Additional reporting from ContemporaryAnd