Giving in to Melancholy; one artist's take on life
Jun 23, 2015
It is all in the title: Melancholy. A brooding sadness laced with anger and frustration. Makerere University art gallery is beaming with such darkness in a one month exhibition that features Ian Mwesiga’s latest paintings.
By Stephen Ssenkaaba
It is all in the title: Melancholy. A brooding sadness laced with anger and frustration. Makerere University art gallery is beaming with such darkness in a one month exhibition that features Ian Mwesiga’s latest paintings.
Mwesiga is a young painter and a recent graduate of Makerere University school of Industrial and Fine Arts. His latest body of work- comprising nearly 20 paintings will be on display until Saturday July 4th.
Distortion
Mwesiga’s work which appears on fairly large canvasses- some of them the size of an ordinary classroom blackboard-presents emotive images characterized by huge distorted human forms.
Art lovers admiring a painting entitled “Blossoming in the desert” by Ian Mwesigwa at the art gallery of Margaret Trowell school of Industrial Arts Makerere University on June 15, 2015. Photo/Tony Rujuta.
Large curvaceous female figures with round popping eyes, overflowing boobs and overstretched limbs in some cases and long, oval faced human forms in other cases.
In a varied range of paintings, he shares a dark, if overcast outlook on life. He questions the relevance of organized religion in a society where church leaders seem to care only about their own wellbeing and very little for the souls of their followers.
One of his paintings entitled “Because we are the cheerful givers” captures this sentiment. It is an artistic parody of a compromising church that will accept all who can offer generously to its coffers even at the expense of its moral standards.
Mwesiga explains the painting entitled “Blossoming in the desert” at the art gallery of Margaret Trowell school of Industrial Arts Makerere University on June 15, 2015. Photo/Tony Rujuta.
Mwesiga’s interest in exploring the female figure is unmistakable, but his subject matter goes beyond simply well curved, round bodies. His painting of long sulky faces speak to a more introspective outlook to life of an artist who admittedly says there is a lot going on in his own life.
“I have so many questions that keep troubling me,” he said in an interview last week.
Against the grain
Mwesiga’s work is his own attempt at defying conventions in almost every possible way. His painting which mostly is done in acrylics bends all rules of aesthetics, presenting female figures with warped body parts and seemingly broken limbs.
Mwesiga explains the painting entitled “Introspection 1” at the art gallery of Margaret Trowell school of Industrial Arts Makerere University on June 15, 2015. Photo/Tony Rujuta.
His pallete remains perpetually dull, making greater use of dark, gloomy colours such as grey, deep blues, black, red and a few sprinklings of yellow on somewhat rough backgrounds.
But it is in his powerful presentation laced with winding thin and sharp lines that enriches his canvass.
Religious symbolism is a key element of Mwesiga’s painting in this exhibition, thus the rampant use of religious imagery such as the cross and the holy rosary.
Raised into a Roman Catholic family, Mwesiga has grown to distrust a lot of what Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular espouses as the moral, spiritual standard.
For him religion and the church are part of the continued perpetuation the sort of irrelevant orthodoxy that he is fighting so hard to get away from. This could explain his cynical approach.
For a man who started his career painting vibrant cityscapes, Mwesiga’s shift to a more open minded, experimental style is telling. His outlook to life and approach to his work has become more philosophical and more interrogative.
This may well be the result of exposure gained from two influential art residences at the 32° East in Kampala and the Kuona Trust in Nairobi. More work is expected from this man who is gradually sketching his way forward in a fast changing industry.