The Political Side of Things

Muwawa Installation , 2020 Aluminium printing plates, copper plate and copper stitches

Imagine a chandelier made of a thousand cast aluminum bullet strung together with copper wires hanging above your head. Imagine what would happen if you stand under it for too long. These are one of the many things you don’t think about, ever. Only, when presented,you begin the imagine those possibilities. Now picture a community of people in an open landscape, strung together like tangled twine, standing on a raft as dark clouds loom over their heads.

The waves around them crashes, rocking their raft. Behind them is a stronger wave, large and wide, advancing towards the people with pride. As your attention shifts towards the people, you begin to see the fear in their poses and anguish in their stares. This is how I see many political pieces, which are almost always chaotic. They keep us connected and engaged in a rather broad aspect of political life. For this creative genius Odur Ronald, he tackles ideas from different vantage points that may reveal themselves as sculptures, installations, paintings, and performance.

His wicked styles vividly express the themes and narratives of the complexities of social-political interactions and their influence in the contemporary world.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, Odur has always been around usable scrape of metals. In his practice, he mainly uses aluminum printing plates by exploring its possibilities, �?one technique at a time.’ He explores them not only by painting on the aluminum sheets but also by dent, burn, layer, stitch and weave the shiny metal, thus achieving texture, colour, shape and character. “Growing up near the biggest scrap dealing community in Katwe, one of the suburbs of Kampala, Uganda, my attachment to aluminum dates back to my scrap collecting childhood days,” he recalls and while it may have not been the best route to making money, he accepts that it was enough to acquire toys for himself.

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