alley fine art / framing

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Elson Kambalu

I was born 31 years ago, in Nsanje District in a family of eight children (three boys and five girls). My father was in the medical profession, working in government hospitals, whilst my mother was a primary school teacher.

We grew up a nomadic life due to the nature of our father’s job, which was taking us from one District to another. Whilst on these trips I was privileged to meet people with different cultures, a factor, which I believe, has defined me to be the kind of artist that I am today.

 

As a young man I don’t remember having painted or drawn a single picture with the intention of becoming an artist. I touched a paintbrush for the first time in 1998 after I had graduated from Malawi Polytechnic, with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. My art is completely self –taught. I never at one point sat under the direction of any artist as I learned how to paint, save for the initial passive orientation on art appreciation, by my younger brother, who is currently a professional artist living in the UK.

 

I am currently working as the Director of Art-House Africa, a company which I founded. Prior to my current employment I was working as a National Programmes Coordinator for GOPA-TEVET project, based in Lilongwe.

 

A statement from the artist

I believe in Art that is conceptual in that it should tell a story in one way or the other. I do not believe in Art that is fixed and simply displays one’s competence. Art does not end at line, color, tone and shape. It goes deeper!

I believe in Art of pluralism and eclecticism. The most beautiful thing about Contemporary Art is that it has no uniform organizing principle or ideology, as was the case previously. In my Art I want to do away with optical formalism, high seriousness, utopianism, social detachment, invocation of the subconscious, and elitism.

I strongly believe in Art that is corporate, in that should relate to the community at large.

 

I have always believed that viewers are active participants in the process of constructing meaning around my Art works. Much as I may have a concept around my work of Art, I believe that the knowledge, ideas and experiences that an individual brings to an artwork will influence the meaning they find in that Artwork.

 

As an Artist I am open to different interpretations being made by different viewers. The beautiful thing about contemporary Art is that an Artist’s interpretation of a finished work may not be final. I am a strong believer of a theory, which advocates that the viewer’s role in constructing meaning around an artwork is what completes an artwork.

I have ever begun working on a painting and then later end up hanging it up side down because it is making sense that way. I strongly believe that an artwork is like a mirror that expresses one’s personality. This simply implies that whenever we are going out to buy a work of Art, what we are simply doing is searching for ourselves.

 

Whenever people ask me about what a good Artwork is, I usually tell them that good Art is subjective. A good work of Art is the one that evokes emotions. A good artwork touches the deepest fantasies of our hearts, and that alone is unexplainable and cannot be shared. When a thousand people echo in agreement about how good a particular artwork is, you should listen to their interpretation, and be assured of a thousand different answers!

 

You do not need to draw or paint to be dubbed an artist. Paintings or Art works are just manifestations of an Artistic mind. The misconception about Art is that we have associated Art with characters on a canvas, wood or stone.

 

Art has undergone transformation in that it is no longer merely a tool to express aesthetic values, but has gone as far as becoming a political tool, an economic tool, a social tool, and a technological tool. Art plays an active part in the transformation of society.

Art to me is a means of expressing poetic fantasies. This form of Art is passionate rather than rational.

 

Instead of being a pastime for the privileged, Art is to address the nation and serve as educational, moralistic functions, providing examples and encouraging noble deeds.

 

I believe good Art is that which should play an active part in the transformation of society.