Exhibitions

There is Hope in the Tears of Separation

An exhibition by Piloya Irene

Curators: Sascia Bailer, Nantume Violet

26th Nov – 10th Dec 2022 Zodongo, Gulu Plot 52A Eden Road

“We escaped to nearby forests for safety. During looting, houses were burnt, lips and ears lopped off and people’s heads were either blown off by bullets or slaughtered by machetes. Children asked to slaughter their fathers, women and girls were raped! Forests were safer than homes, trees protected better than houses.”

Piloya Irene

Like trees, humans can also suffer from “transplant shocks,” from violent uprootings from their homes. The Loboyo-born artist Piloya Irene takes inspiration from trees in their ambivalences, their sense of shelter and their fragility to whither. For the exhibition “There is Hope in the Tears of Separation” the artist explores barks of trees as an entry point to connect her own biography involving displacement and disconnection across three generations in her immediate family. Her interest in using tree fibers is informed by distant yet vivid memories of her childhood. Specific memories became more present as the artist searched for tree barks in Ghana, where she currently resides. For this exhibition, Piloya combines Kyenkyen from Ghana and Lubugo from Uganda in search for both: shelter from traumatic experiences and the longing to (re)connect to the world.

 

Artist Statement 

Personal experience in relation to History, Emotions, Memories and Cultural diversities provide inspiration for my work. My works not only speak for me but also for those that are marginalized or minoritised due to circumstances such as conflicts, sexism and racism. I use natural fiber derived from tree barks to depict the neuroplasticity of the mind and also experiment with various materials. My sculptures are cast using adhesive and the barkcloth material and recently I am working with the raffia ropes which are also a form of natural fiber derived from tree bark made in the Northern part of Ghana. Sodium hypochlorite appears in my work from time to time since I also prefer experimenting to acquire a process of reaction that is endless. The idea of construction and deconstruction, merging of spaces to depict the mind’s fragility. I make tangible the destructive effects of war migration and exposure to extreme environments and how it has impacted mental states. I aim to create works layered with intimate chronicles of recollections of home and a longing for the familiar. The works thus eloquently weave together personal memories and effects of political uprisings.

 

Abaana Bakintu

A Sculptural Installation

By Nakitende Sheila

Curators: Helga Rainer

2-4 April ,9am -6pm 2022

Chemistry Lab Makerere University, Kampala

 

ABAANA BA KINTU

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Sheila Nakitende’s work is historically and emotionally textured in materiality, colour and form. In Abaana ba Kintu, she invites viewers to engage with heritage, colonization, patriarchy, and the multiple facets of changing environments. The artwork asks what architecture, construction, texture, form, and place can be, advancing the relationship with nature and ancestors.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT 

Even with the awareness of being mortal, humans have proven to be an uncontrollable life force.  In our journey to advance, humans are a distinctive virus. Moving and occupying spaces where they are able to initiate or encounter new dynamics, humans can either adapt (become part of), create (make) or destroy (break). Through this process, they mutate through multiplication and transformation and sometimes division.

 

Artist’s bio

Sheila Nakitende (b 1983, Uganda) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice focuses on womanhood experiences that include nurturing, preserving our aesthetics, material culture and methodological history while addressing current influences, challenges and transformations. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Fine Art and Design from Makerere University in 2005. She experimented with painting before exploring installation and performance art.

 

“Abaana ba Kintu…” (The Children of Kintu…)
An installation by Nakitende Sheila
Project by UNDER GROUND Contemporary Art
Projected time: Nov 2021 – Feb 2022
Artist: Nakitende Sheila
Project Curator: Nantume Violet
Exhibition Curator: Helga Rainer

Introducing Lubugo
In this installation, Nakitende Sheila is working with barkcloth (Lubugo), which is not only thought to be the most ancient textile made by humanity but also possesses a significant cultural value among the Baganda people of Central Uganda.

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EROTICISM AND INTIMACY: FACES, PLACES AND PATHS
Group Exhibition 8th Mar – 9th Apr 2016

Women’s Day Art Exhibition

Eroticism is defined as sexual desire or excitement, while intimacy is a close familiarity or friendship. These two elements are central to the inquiry of this project. How we conceal or reveal sexual desire is related to the close familiarity with our bodies, or with other people. In addition, the paths or ways to intimacy are wide ranging: from romance literature and sexual therapy to perfumes, music and alcohol. Places of intimacy are equally innumerable: hotels, trains, airports, homes, bedrooms, bathrooms and outdoor spaces.

Heart of Darkness
A Solo exhibition by Christian Tundula

24th April -27th May 2016

No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey. The life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence That which makes its truth, its meaning Its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream-alone…”

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a photography exhibition by Christian Tundula, a Belgian artist of Congolese extraction. He reconstructed a series of photographic images by digitally editing them or manually cutting and patching them together like a collage. Christian did this in order to embrace his own phantom, which is the manifestation of his dreams, memories, and experiences. His works are therefore an autographical journey into the abyss of his personal psychic space clothed by his flesh, a heart of darkness, wherein his phantom strays between abstraction and reality, receding beyond the realm of photojournalism.

“ZIKUNTA”
Wasswa August Donald – Waswad
Solo Exhibition, 3rd Sept – 20th Dec 2016

We are forced to be transformed; change is inevitable; transformation is a part of the process of change…

Zikunta, Installation – Wood, Bark Cloth and Sisal

Inspiration for Zikunta

My work is inspired by nature, life, human beings and their environments and behavior, and how change affects them in a given period of time. I fuse reality and fiction to tell stories.

 

PROFESSOR PILKINGTON NSIBAMBI SENGENDO
A Cultural Tribute (1942-2015)

A Collaborative Project between UNDER GROUND and Nommo Gallery
9th-23rd Dec 2016

Prof. Pilkington Sengendo: The search for identity and meaning.

1995 was a year of reckoning for African Art. For the first time, African art was presented to the West free from the biases that had bedeviled the Magicien de la Terre exhibition a few years earlier. And for Uganda, 1995 was particularly significant because, for the first time the region of East Africa which rarely featured in discussions on African art was brought into the lime light. The stereotype that there is no serious art in East Africa was being addressed head on. The works selected for Africa 95 exhibition may have been solely contributed by the Makerere Art Gallery, but they provided an idea of the visual terrain of the country over the years. Spanning a period from the early 60s, they revealed that artists were attentive to the social, cultural and political challenges of their time and their individual and collective interpretation of the events was clear.

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TOGETHER WE CAN INSTALLATION

Nabukenya Helen

Curator

Nantume Violet and Hashimoto Kei

Women and Empowerment in Uganda

According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics, provisional results of the recently conducted National Population and Housing census indicate that Uganda’s population has grown from 24, 227,297 million in 2002, up to 34,856,813 million in 2014. The report covers population size, distribution, sex and residence up to the sub-county level. It indicated that females constitute the biggest percentage of the total population of Uganda, with (51% compared to males at 49%). Translated into figures, this means that there are 16,935,456 million males in Uganda compared to 17,921,357 million females.

Out of the more than 15.5 million national labor force (14-64 years), 269, 000 are jobless and over 1.4 million are underemployed. The report further indicates that, “three out of every five unemployed persons were women, with the urban areas (70 per cent) depicting a higher proportion compared to the rural areas (42 per cent)”.

POP – RAP – HIP
Michale Matthew KayiwaMatt Kayem
Solo Exhibition, 22nd July – 31 August 2016

Curated by  Kei Hashimoto

POP-RAP-HIP is an exhibition by Ugandan contemporary artist, Matt Kayem. The artist has created clay sculptures and a series of paintings on jeans he has worn and nolonger uses. He uses these to express his perception of Ugandan society in general. On one hand, Kayem’s work is based on his own stories about everyday life and on the other, it is a critique of the lifestyle of power, sex, fame and wealth among some Ugandans. These are the common stereotypes the general public usually have of someone who has “made it” in life and to which many aspire. But this is normally a far cry from reality and instead breeds envy and fights among those who are trying hard to be “hip” and make it to the top.

Photo by Erau Timothy

ENZIRO
Photography works by Nankoma Sandra
22nd June to 22nd July 2017

Curated by Kei Hashimoto

Born 1988, SANDY SOUL (also known as Nankoma Sandra) is a Ugandan multidisciplinary artist with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Fine Art from Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. Apart from being an artist, Sandy Soul is a gifted singer, poet and songwriter. She co-founded Afroman Spice in 2015, an all-female theatre company that produces and acts plays on social change. Sandy Soul practices all her crafts concurrently and believes in marrying them because each one informs the others.

Cast a Light on Prejudice
Papa Shabani
Curated by Kei Hashimoto and Nantume Violet

11th Dec 2015 – 24th Jan 2016

THE EXHIBITION

“Cast a Light on Prejudice” is a composite exhibition of photo portraits in progress. On one hand, the exhibition explores and disseminates the subject of Albinism in East Africa, and on the other, it focuses on the lives and times of Nubian Women living in Kibera in Kenya. Featuring works by award-winning photographer Papa Shabani, the exhibition casts a spot-light on the social issues surrounding these minority groups as seen through the lens of his camera.

The exhibition is not a mere dais to showcase monumental photos. It beckons the viewer to engage in dialogue with it and seek to be schooled about topics that remain a taboo in our society. Papa’s portraits call into question our awareness of East Africa’s albinos and the Nubians of Kibera, force us to confront their dark shadows, and aspire to open our eyes to their invisible reality beyond the twin veils of our preconceptions and prejudices.