Innocence graces art galleries
Jun 10, 2004
<b>ART</b><br>It started as a simple project in December last year. Forty former street children under Cornerstone Development Uganda, a charity organisation converged at Design Agenda Gallery to paint.<br>
By Stephen Ssenkaaba
and Nathan Kiwere
It started as a simple project in December last year. Forty former street children under Cornerstone Development Uganda, a charity organisation converged at Design Agenda Gallery to paint.
With help from professional artists from the Index Masheriki artists group, the children aged 6 to 17 years produced over 30 paintings.
Once again, it was a rare moment when childhood innocence graces the walls of art galleries, replacing the monotonous, too often predictable adult hypocrisy.
In an era where most of the artists struggle to paint like Picasso, or some other great western artist of the medieval times, the sight of raw images painted in a style so free and bound neither by text book rules, nor the so-called artistic “isms†puts the eyes to rest. Their style of art is reminiscent of western pschedelic art — an American art form that is done under the influence of pschydelic drugs that affect the emotions of an artist. It is characteristic of works of mentally disturbed children.
Every work at the gallery bears no titles, indicating the children’s unbiased approach to their paintings.
Some of the children enjoy head-painting — putting colourful images on the faces of others. Fourteen-year-old Abdul Latif, a former street kid is one of the artists who participated in the event. “At first i didn’t know any art, but now i have learnt how to draw,†he said. But 10-year-old John Muwonge’s fanaticism is almost unparalleled among the group. He is a P.1 pupil at Shimoni Dem. School and he passionately says, “I leave school daily at one o’clock and join the group in drawing lessons at Cornerstone and i hope to continue with art and become like these big stars.â€
The works comprise mostly group illustrations on bark cloth done with a multiplicity of media ranging from pastels to acrylics. While each of the pieces might have been done with an underlying theme, that aspect is not emphasised in the exhibition, instead, we are treated to various paintings so rich in composition and meaning, yet simple in expression.
Inspired by different experiences in their short, but turbulent lives, the kids rely on colour to express themselves.
Many of the paintings are filled with dim, subtle colours such as navy blue, green, brown and deep reds, perhaps to portray the dark days of abuse, hunger, and denial many of them have experienced, while the few traces of yellow, white and orange could symbolise the optimism that these once deprived kids have the hope that after years of suffering, they are now in safe hands and their future is bright.
The somewhat cluttered images tell as much about the disorganised environment in which many of them have grown as they do about their unsettled minds.
And seeing most of their paintings of neat clean homesteads with seemingly happy families, mothers cuddling babies, and innocent, childish faces, one can’t help feeling how much these children miss being brought up in clean homesteads and happy families, how much they miss being embraced and loved. Ends
and Nathan Kiwere
It started as a simple project in December last year. Forty former street children under Cornerstone Development Uganda, a charity organisation converged at Design Agenda Gallery to paint.
With help from professional artists from the Index Masheriki artists group, the children aged 6 to 17 years produced over 30 paintings.
Once again, it was a rare moment when childhood innocence graces the walls of art galleries, replacing the monotonous, too often predictable adult hypocrisy.
In an era where most of the artists struggle to paint like Picasso, or some other great western artist of the medieval times, the sight of raw images painted in a style so free and bound neither by text book rules, nor the so-called artistic “isms†puts the eyes to rest. Their style of art is reminiscent of western pschedelic art — an American art form that is done under the influence of pschydelic drugs that affect the emotions of an artist. It is characteristic of works of mentally disturbed children.
Every work at the gallery bears no titles, indicating the children’s unbiased approach to their paintings.
Some of the children enjoy head-painting — putting colourful images on the faces of others. Fourteen-year-old Abdul Latif, a former street kid is one of the artists who participated in the event. “At first i didn’t know any art, but now i have learnt how to draw,†he said. But 10-year-old John Muwonge’s fanaticism is almost unparalleled among the group. He is a P.1 pupil at Shimoni Dem. School and he passionately says, “I leave school daily at one o’clock and join the group in drawing lessons at Cornerstone and i hope to continue with art and become like these big stars.â€
The works comprise mostly group illustrations on bark cloth done with a multiplicity of media ranging from pastels to acrylics. While each of the pieces might have been done with an underlying theme, that aspect is not emphasised in the exhibition, instead, we are treated to various paintings so rich in composition and meaning, yet simple in expression.
Inspired by different experiences in their short, but turbulent lives, the kids rely on colour to express themselves.
Many of the paintings are filled with dim, subtle colours such as navy blue, green, brown and deep reds, perhaps to portray the dark days of abuse, hunger, and denial many of them have experienced, while the few traces of yellow, white and orange could symbolise the optimism that these once deprived kids have the hope that after years of suffering, they are now in safe hands and their future is bright.
The somewhat cluttered images tell as much about the disorganised environment in which many of them have grown as they do about their unsettled minds.
And seeing most of their paintings of neat clean homesteads with seemingly happy families, mothers cuddling babies, and innocent, childish faces, one can’t help feeling how much these children miss being brought up in clean homesteads and happy families, how much they miss being embraced and loved. Ends