CUTHBERT Semgoja has always felt visual art is his preferred vehicle for channeling different ideas that could prove to be quite enlightening to the society he is living in.
The Dar es Salaam-based visual artist has not only shown determination in making the most of his talent in a bid to reach great heights but also devoted to playing crucial role in efforts to raise the status of the profession so that it could, in the end, benefit fellow artists as well.
Semgoja’s trek into the profession got a timely boost a couple of weeks back when he had the opportunity to participate in a joint exhibition dubbed ''Mikono'' with fellow visual artist, Gadi Ramadhan, at the Nafasi Art Space in the city.
And, as it turned out, the exhibition was a chance Semgoja hardly wanted to squander as he effectively used it to showcase a different visual art form he has come to cherish the most, namely printmaking.
Both Semgoja and Ramadhan exhibited a series of artworks in printmaking form to provide yet another unique approach to effective promotion of domestic visual art. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper.
The encyclopedia reveals printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.
Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Matrices include metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching.
Others are stone, aluminium, or polymer for lithography and blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screen-printing process.
For Semgoja, the exhibition was an opportune moment to reveal the power of printmaking to present the exact ideas he has intended to communicate to the public. Printmaking, as he disclosed in an interview, was the best way to produce artworks in a manner that embraces originality, apart from helping the concerned artist present his or her ideas in exactly the same approach he or she has chosen.
Semgoja lined up skillfully created artworks depicting different aspects of human life ranging from loneliness to cultural activities. He also had other works that depicted wildlife. The exhibition was his maiden big event as a practicing visual artist and he hardly hesitated to express his delight at having the chance to put his talent to show in front of curious visual arts lovers that attended.
“This is the first big exhibition I’m taking part in after attending a workshop on printmaking, which was organized by a Dar es Salaam-based institution namely Vipaji Foundation last year,” he said.
An interview with Semgoja revealed he has plenty to marvel at in printmaking and is determined to make full use of the visual art form to promote creativity in the field. “Printmaking is quite different from other forms of visual arts in that it has the power to present an artist’s ideas in exactly original form…the originality in the artworks is always there and you can easily feel it,” he insisted.
He expressed optimism on printmaking’s ability to play crucial part in inspiring creativity among domestic visual artists and, in turn, raise the standard of the profession thanks to the art form’s uniqueness. “I have already planned to stage several more exhibitions after this maiden event with a view to continuing promoting printmaking,” said Semgoja.
The Mikono exhibition, for that matter, became his launch pad for effective use of printmaking to communicate different issues surrounding the society, apart from continuing to unveil the richness found in domestic culture.
Although his pursuit of visual art was, to some extent, driven by his love of drawing sketches of human beings and objects when he was a primary school pupil, Semgoja credits his talent and progress in the field to his two uncles, who were established visual artists.
“In our family, my two uncles were visual artists…one of them, who has passed away, was in particular an established artist and the duo inspired me to seriously take the profession although I already had passion for it,” he said.
Ramadhan, who is also the Nafasi Art Space’s programmes manager, presented equally creative artworks in printmaking with most of them depicting the increasing influence women have in leadership in the country. A couple of his artworks showed women slowly taking the leadership role from men right from the family to the national level.
“In some of my artworks, I have shown women clearly taking over leadership in our society…it is not a surprise because the aspect can be seen almost everywhere,” said Ramadhan. Some of Ramadhan’s artworks, namely He was the Man and Chairperson, offered a vivid account of the message that the visual artist had communicated to the public as both artworks showed the man having willingly relinquished the leadership role to the woman.
"Printmaking fills me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity and has proved to be the most amenable vehicle for translating inner vision into outer reality," said Ramadhan.
Despite being extremely enthusiastic about turning printmaking into a prominent visual art form, as well as fully cooperating with fellow visual artists in making their profession a much rewarding undertaking, Semgoja believes Tanzanians’ lack of passion for visual art stands in the way of the artists’ efforts. “The truth is Tanzanians are not interested in visual art…they largely believe that visual artworks are produced for foreigners, thus, they hardly bother to buy them,” he said.
Semgoja’s view is certainly shared by almost all domestic visual artists who, despite the obvious discouragement they experience because of the locals’ perception, have developed an unwavering determination in pushing for the betterment of their beloved profession.
Semgoja believes the locals need to do away with the seemingly outdated perception and start embracing visual art and the artworks produced by their very own domestic visual artists. Apart from producing artworks in printmaking, Semgoja said he does painting as well as producing artworks from recycled materials but he expressed his desire to continue embarking on more projects in printmaking.
Semgoja hinted that he has planned to impart his knowledge of printmaking to the aspiring domestic visual artists to ensure that his efforts to make printmaking a mainstay at the domestic level are sustained.
“I’m planning to impart my printmaking skills to the young generation of domestic visual artists because I do not want to let this art form to perish,” he said. He further used the exhibition to announce his plan to shift his base to the Nafasi Art Space in a bid to have more room to undertake his projects.
“Right now I’m doing most of my works at home considering that I had previously focused on painting and production of artworks from recycled materials but I will shift to this venue probably from early next year so I could have more room to operate”, he said.
Semgoja strongly believes that printmaking and visual art in general can offer self employment to the unemployed domestic youths, thus, the latter should not simply sit back and complain of the government’s failure to offer them jobs.
“The domestic youths should not either sit idly or aimlessly loiter in streets…they simply need training in printmaking and other forms of visual art so they could embark on self employment,” he said.
“The cardboards used in printmaking are quite cheap…one can easily get them in streets and the same could be said of recycled materials used to produce other artworks…domestic youths should use this opportunity to change their lives for the better,” he added.
Domestic visual artists’ battle for prosperity might have barely begun bearing fruits but, with such enthusiastic artists like Semgoja and Ramadhan on board, the hopes for collective success in the field will definitely never fade.
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