Artists focussed on money � Gare
Dumisani Ncube | Friday February 26, 2016 17:31
Gare is one of the first artists to work at Thapong Visual Centre when Veryan Edward opened it in the 90s.
“Local artists are focussed much on airport art. This is artwork that one does fast so that they can just get money real quick. They have forgotten the values of art, which is making abstract and contemporary work that sends a message to the society. We have political, social and economic issues that are affecting us which they should be addressing through art,” Gare said.
He said making money as an artist was allowed, but artists should also make some meaningful work for the society. He gave examples of artists that work on commercial drawings or paintings of ordinary subjects such as portraits, clay pots and copying staff they see from photographs without conceptualising any ideas.
“When working on something meaningful ,you take your time without rushing to get money,” he said. “You have to work on art works that challenge your audience, something that will take them time to figure what you have been working on.”
He said if artists continued at such a pace their audience would get bored, as they would be used to the same old artworks.
Gare noted that Botswana had good artists who were denied the platform to express their concepts and ideas.
The veteran artist said failure to work on such abstract artwork led to the lack of positive artwork in Botswana, which will also lead to artists failing to penetrate international markets.
“We are heading into the contemporary world. Even the architecture world is changing. They are coming up with new designs everyday. You should think outside the box, the problem is artists want to work as individuals. Sometimes you should have a dialogue with other artists, let them criticise your work so you grow and develop your art,” Gare said.
Gare has exhibited his works in a number of places around the world.
“My concepts are influenced by poetic words and metaphysics. It’s a personal evolution,” he said.
His latest work titled Immortal is an abstract sculpture made from wood and pieces of metal. It has different colours, which include brown, and yellow, with some rust and some circular openings, which resemble an eclipse.
Explaining this artwork, he said it spoke of how people migrate from the villages to the townships where they tend to lose their cultures, as they get absorbed into a multi cultural society. The wheel stands as the migrating era with the different colours resembling people in townships getting confused from the different cultures they are surrounded by.
He has established himself in Australia where he is mainly known as a sculptor. Gare majors in bricolage sculpturing. Some of the artworks are titled The communist poem, Mental liberation and Nostalgia.