Portraying Africa artistically
Oct 07, 2004
HER work beams with colour. Her palate screams with passion and so does her demeanour. But there is more to Rosalie Sanda, an Ethiopian-born visual artist, whose art exhibition is currently running at the Sheraton Kampala hotel.
By Stephen Ssenkaaba
HER work beams with colour. Her palate screams with passion and so does her demeanour. But there is more to Rosalie Sanda, an Ethiopian-born visual artist, whose art exhibition is currently running at the Sheraton Kampala hotel.
Born to a Congolese father and an Ethiopian mother, Sanda has lived in seven different countries in Africa, Europe and America. Her painting has accordingly been influenced by her multi cultural upbringing.
Her acrylic paintings combine both western abstract and contemporary African approaches to tell a moving story; a story of one person’s search for cultural identity, which she happily discovers somewhere along the way.
Raised and schooled away from home, Sanda uses her art to reach out to her seemingly distant African roots.
Her realistic images of African women and children betray the African in Sanda and her pride at being African. With subtle and lively colours, Sanda paints images of long-necked dark faces adorned with jewellery as if to extol the beauty of the African woman.
The sad and pensive looking faces, however, tell a story of desperation and frustration.
Sanda employs rhythm and colour to draw the viewer’s attention. She employs a cocktail of bright hues tactfully interwoven into circular, wavy patterns, which freely run across the mounted paper forming continuos rhythmic patterns.
The waves in her work symbolise continuity, a sign of hope and life while the circular images portray African jewellery, a strong symbol of African beauty.
Sanda displays good control over her palate for as long as she maintains a well balanced and very intense colour scheme with reseeding greens, browns and blues against the vibrant yellows and reds.
At some point, she loses control over the palate and gives in to the radiance of the yellows and reds.
Such is the power of bright colours in her work that they overshadow nearly every other detail therein. The presence of colour in her work is also symbolic.
The bright colours are a positive sign of brightness, while the dark ones portray calmness and peace.
Sanda uses her painting to get in touch with her other self, and in so doing, her work appeals to millions of other Africans out there, who have been lost in the cultural wilderness.
HER work beams with colour. Her palate screams with passion and so does her demeanour. But there is more to Rosalie Sanda, an Ethiopian-born visual artist, whose art exhibition is currently running at the Sheraton Kampala hotel.
Born to a Congolese father and an Ethiopian mother, Sanda has lived in seven different countries in Africa, Europe and America. Her painting has accordingly been influenced by her multi cultural upbringing.
Her acrylic paintings combine both western abstract and contemporary African approaches to tell a moving story; a story of one person’s search for cultural identity, which she happily discovers somewhere along the way.
Raised and schooled away from home, Sanda uses her art to reach out to her seemingly distant African roots.
Her realistic images of African women and children betray the African in Sanda and her pride at being African. With subtle and lively colours, Sanda paints images of long-necked dark faces adorned with jewellery as if to extol the beauty of the African woman.
The sad and pensive looking faces, however, tell a story of desperation and frustration.
Sanda employs rhythm and colour to draw the viewer’s attention. She employs a cocktail of bright hues tactfully interwoven into circular, wavy patterns, which freely run across the mounted paper forming continuos rhythmic patterns.
The waves in her work symbolise continuity, a sign of hope and life while the circular images portray African jewellery, a strong symbol of African beauty.
Sanda displays good control over her palate for as long as she maintains a well balanced and very intense colour scheme with reseeding greens, browns and blues against the vibrant yellows and reds.
At some point, she loses control over the palate and gives in to the radiance of the yellows and reds.
Such is the power of bright colours in her work that they overshadow nearly every other detail therein. The presence of colour in her work is also symbolic.
The bright colours are a positive sign of brightness, while the dark ones portray calmness and peace.
Sanda uses her painting to get in touch with her other self, and in so doing, her work appeals to millions of other Africans out there, who have been lost in the cultural wilderness.