The woman through sculpture
Sep 18, 2003
WHENEVER the name Ronnex Ahimbisibwe is mentioned, I know the next subject is women,†says Japheth Ddumba, an artist I met at the Uganda German Cultural Society, in Ntinda, where Ahimbisibwe is holding an exhibition that is expected to last a month.
WHENEVER the name Ronnex Ahimbisibwe is mentioned, I know the next subject is women,†says Japheth Ddumba, an artist I met at the Uganda German Cultural Society, in Ntinda, where Ahimbisibwe is holding an exhibition that is expected to last a month.
The sculptor does not refute this allegation.
“My subjects revolve around women. They are natural treasures Africans should be proud of.
Through them, our culture has kept burning. Our sheer existence depends on their love but what is sad is that they are unsung heroes,†he says.
“It is so sad that most of the women’s rights have been trampled upon, and as such my dream has been to project them in another light. One in which they are proud of their bodies and their roles in society,†he explains.
The 25-year-old’s inspiration and soft spot for the women, stems from his three-year stay in Kalerwe, one of the largest slums on the outskirts of the city.
“Here I discovered that women in Uganda are treated as objects of desire, which has never gone down well with me. To atone for such bad feeling, I promised myself to portray them as a sex that commands respect,†he explains, admitting that life in the slum lent a news dimension to his work.
He says fellow artists, Naita Kasumba and Henry Muzili, and international artist Franco Veroca are some of the sources of his inspiration.
Two sculptures catch my eye. Eggali Ekozeko (a used bicycle), depicting a haggard woman and Ssenga’s lessons. One needs to have listened to Gerald Kiwewa ’s song Eggali Ekozeko, to get tickled by the sculpture as I was!
Ahimbisibwe says blending different materials has helped him achieve many of his dream art pieces.
“I use different materials ranging from wood, metal, oil paints, acrylic paints, bark cloth, ink and paper. This makes my works richer,†the artist who is now obsessed with facial expression depicted through masks, says.
“People make false statements in what they say or even do, but look in their faces for facial expression and you can not go wrong,†he says.
For sculpture, which is the major attraction at the ongoing art exhibition, Ahimbisibwe explains that he curves his works out of pieces of wooden rejects. The reason behind ‘resurrecting the wood,’ he says, is embedded in the desire to give a new life to something once considered ‘rubbish,’ by turning it into evoking and meaningful art pieces.
This is the same way he labours to portray the African woman as a valuable human being.
The sculptor does not refute this allegation.
“My subjects revolve around women. They are natural treasures Africans should be proud of.
Through them, our culture has kept burning. Our sheer existence depends on their love but what is sad is that they are unsung heroes,†he says.
“It is so sad that most of the women’s rights have been trampled upon, and as such my dream has been to project them in another light. One in which they are proud of their bodies and their roles in society,†he explains.
The 25-year-old’s inspiration and soft spot for the women, stems from his three-year stay in Kalerwe, one of the largest slums on the outskirts of the city.
“Here I discovered that women in Uganda are treated as objects of desire, which has never gone down well with me. To atone for such bad feeling, I promised myself to portray them as a sex that commands respect,†he explains, admitting that life in the slum lent a news dimension to his work.
He says fellow artists, Naita Kasumba and Henry Muzili, and international artist Franco Veroca are some of the sources of his inspiration.
Two sculptures catch my eye. Eggali Ekozeko (a used bicycle), depicting a haggard woman and Ssenga’s lessons. One needs to have listened to Gerald Kiwewa ’s song Eggali Ekozeko, to get tickled by the sculpture as I was!
Ahimbisibwe says blending different materials has helped him achieve many of his dream art pieces.
“I use different materials ranging from wood, metal, oil paints, acrylic paints, bark cloth, ink and paper. This makes my works richer,†the artist who is now obsessed with facial expression depicted through masks, says.
“People make false statements in what they say or even do, but look in their faces for facial expression and you can not go wrong,†he says.
For sculpture, which is the major attraction at the ongoing art exhibition, Ahimbisibwe explains that he curves his works out of pieces of wooden rejects. The reason behind ‘resurrecting the wood,’ he says, is embedded in the desire to give a new life to something once considered ‘rubbish,’ by turning it into evoking and meaningful art pieces.
This is the same way he labours to portray the African woman as a valuable human being.