Harnessing a complex medium
Spira Tlhankane | Friday February 10, 2017 11:12
While the most cultured peoples of antiquity like the Nabataeans carved the ancient city of Petra from stone, one would think that woodcarving is even easy conceptually.
Despite woodcraft being a difficult and laborious process Osego Motlogelwa has gone out to angle his own style when it comes to sculpture. When Arts & Culture caught up with the 32-year-old artist at a Thapong Visual Arts Centre studio, he was already up to the task. Looking at his drastic approach in woodcraft, Motlogelwa’s art falls under the modern sculpture movement. Modern sculpture is generally considered to have begun with the work of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, who is seen as the progenitor of modern sculpture.
As a self-professed art addict Motlogelwa said he started art during his primary school days with pencil drawing. As he continued his education at secondary, Motlogelwa was introduced to sculpture and fell in love with it from the onset.
As a man who wanted to see how sculpting works, he said he never gave up on his craft even after completing senior secondary school. After moving to Selebi Phikwe in 2006, Motlogelwa said he continued his passion there and mostly displayed his artwork on roadsides. “I ended up coming back to Gaborone in 2010 to get more opportunities,” he said.
After becoming a member of Thapong, he said he developed further skills and learnt how to work with other artists. Motlogelwa said being based in Gaborone opened a lot of doors for him and in 2013 he attended a workshop in Tanzania and later China in 2014.
He said he makes a lot of art and was involved in making the elephant tusk sculpture at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. “I also help students with their projects, especially tertiary students. I keep working hard because sculpture involves passion. I research a lot and look at what other international artists work on and learn to improve my own,” he said.
Motlogelwa said in most of his works he carves women’s figures because of their artistic nature. “I like wood sculptures because they represent nature and mostly I work on certain parts because other parts will have been already outlined due to its original structure,” he said. He said as a modern artist, he has themes and always makes sketches before working on a piece of wood. Motlogelwa said sculpting has so much essence because it takes a long time to make the products last for a long time. “I am only here because of hard work and passion,” he said.
The overall difficulty of any sculptural process depends on the choice of materials therefore Motlogelwa said he likes ironwood because of its durability. He said the material he uses determines how difficult it is to produce an end product. Motlogelwa who also carves stones said he can paint but has since decided to invest more time on sculpting.
The man from Lerala said contemporary art takes a long time to sell compared to functional art. He said even though his work is considered difficult and labour-intensive, he will keep on pushing to reach greater heights. Judges of local arts competitions always complain about the lack of growth in the sculpting, but having youthful sculptors like Motlogelwa is a hope that the craft is not altogether going backwards.