It felt like Summer when I visited this show last Saturday, but the temperature dropped at least ten degrees when I entered the gallery. Blues, greens, and grays dominated the walls - challenged only slightly by a few tepid pinks. Each oil painting presented a flat, wooden, solitary figure engaged in a highly competitive activity. All of the young men were basketball players. In their crisp, new jerseys , they were all good enough to make the team. Several of them were especially athletic. Michael Jordan himself could never soar that high in the air. But they were not competing on a basketball court - they were silhouetted against a barren landscape whose colors are noted above. Most of the young women were at a grand piano - but none were touching the keys. They sat beside, slept against, or danced as a ballerina upon it. Actually - I don’t think any of these young Ugandans have ever practiced, much less mastered, either of these activities. They just fantasize about it - presumably to escape a reality that offered so little stimulation, either mental or sensual. I can’t recall healthy young flesh depicted so un -erotically — except perhaps in Byzantine icons. Possibly the artist grew up in a rather severe form of Christianity. The only young women not next to a piano were near picked apples in a garden -- one of which is posted “CAUTION ; BEWARE OF SNAKES”.
Traditional python worship is still common among the Bunyoro of western Uganda, but the snake-garden-apple trope obviously came from another civilization - as did the clothing and architecture that are depicted. As a consequence of European colonialism, these young people are foreigners in their own country. Every step must be taken with care.
The young artist’s website shows his earliest works, and in 2017 the subject matter was quite different. Mwesiga’s “School of Dance and Beauty’’ was an obvious homage to Kerry Marshall’s “ School of Beauty, School of Culture” - again demonstrating the international appeal of our local super-star. People joyfully participating in a social setting has been pictorialized in many times and places. But it’s unusual to find young people depicted as lost at the threshold of adult life. One good artist who comes to mind is Tetsuya Ushida (1973-2005) - who likely stepped in front of a speeding train at the age of 32. Mwesiga, however, may not share the unhappiness of those he is depicting. He’s probably just painting what he sees around him - and it's quite an achievement to portray it so beautifully, compassionately, and without an upfront political agenda.
He shows his subjects as dreamers, not victims. As he sees more kinds of things, he will probably move on. This is a career that I would like to follow.
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