JANET
AKII-BUA: THE ARTIST AND HER WORK
Janet Akii-Bua (born 1973) comes
from a village in the Lira District of Langi in Uganda. The Langi
people are cattle keepers and farmers who are down to earth but
musical, creative and dignified.
Janet spent most of her youth in
her country capital, a capital standing on seven hills. A vast area
marked by varying bright, dry or lush green plains with dazzling
sunlight and spectacular views on huge, shining lake Victoria, light
purplish blue skies, hazy hills.
Janet’s subject matter, technique,
themes and forms are largely influenced by her physical surroundings,
varying traditions and world views and her personal observations
concerning the changing roles of women in modern African society.
Her elongated and schematic female figures for example are rather
similar to traditional sculptures.
As a young girl, Janet already started
scribbling and drawing with encouragement from family, teachers
and friends. She continued her studies in Uganda’s capital,
at the faculty of Industrial and Fine Arts of the prestigious Makerere
University Kampala. She pursued painting, ceramics and graphics
with graphics as her major.
She successfully and with her honours
emerged with a Bachelors Degree in Industrial and Fine Arts in 1997.
Soon after her studies, Janet became a productive member of the
Uganda Art Association. She registered her own business “Janet
Exclusive Designers” in January 2000.
Janet is proud to bear also her family
name “AKII-BUA” a household name in her country. This
is because her father the late John Akii-Bua, was the only Ugandan
who won a gold medal for his country (in Olympics in 1972, Munich
Germany). This record has not been broken to date.
Born in a family of 11 to an Olympian
father and a humble mother, Janet spent most of her youth in her
country’s capital, Kampala and has since been practising from
there.
Acknowledgement as a talented, resourceful
and prolific Artist followed suit. Uganda Television and News Papers
praised her Art works.
During one of her Exhibitions at
the Smart Partnership, Munyonyo, His Excellency, the president of
Uganda, together with fourteen other African Heads of State, visited
Janet’s’ stand. He was full of praises for her work
and has pledged to help her through her endeavours.
In March 2002, the President availed
Janet with 3000 dollars, to travel to France to attend an International
World Fair, “La Foire de Paris” (France). Her works
have found themselves into High ranking government official homes,
offices, restaurants and hotels.
Through her foreign clients, mostly
diplomats, businessmen, tourists, Janet got the idea to explore
further possibilities by trying to reach out to the international
art market in Europe and some African countries. Artistically, speaking,
she’s now trying to amalgamate her African Art Experiences
and creative drive with western concepts and technique. Moreover,
she tries to organise fellow artists into a co-operative undertaking.
SUBJECT MATTER
AND TECHNIQUES:
Janet aims to present her artistic
ideas about reality, spiritual or human and expresses these ideas
through animal or human images especially via elongated youthful
female/male figures whose striking self composure underlines that
they are controlled proud and dignified.
The work is done on fabric "china
cotton", with Industrial dyes. Her work shows that she has
a sensitive and keen eye for capturing meaningful moments. Against
a background of whirl pools of bright colours and light, Janet’s’
Industrial paints suggest her village’s traditional occupations,
hunting scenes, wildlife, manners, customs, cattle and all kinds
of everyday events. At the same time, some figurative and abstract
images hint at social changes taking place. |
