Thursday, February 23, 1984/The Battalion/Page 3
African artwork on display at MSC
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AFRICAN ART
BY
SEKANWAGI
By CATHERINE CAMP
BELL
Reporter
In keeping with Black His
tory month, the MSC Gallery is
exhibiting Ugandan artist Dan
Sekanwagi’s stylized “batik
paintings” which portray life in
African tribes.
“I’m trying to tell you people
about Africa,” Sekanwagi said
Friday. “How we live, make our
food, make our drinks,and how
we get our water.”
Apparently, people like what
Sekanwagi is telling them with
his batiks as the gallery’s guest
registry virtually glows with
praise for his work and talent.
The remarks from gallery
visitors include: “marvelous
shading!” “full of life, color and
movements,” “masterpieces!”
“best exhibit to come to Texas
A&M yet,” “makes me home
sick,” and “makes me want to
defect to Kenya!”
Sekanwagi, a self-taught art
ist, has shied away from the
classic batik methods and has
developed his own technique of
batik, which he calls “batik
painting.”
Instead of dripping paint on
wax-coated fabric — as is done
in traditional batiks — Sekan
wagi applies his special dyes di
rectly to the cloth with brushes,
painting and outlining the
shapes within his batiks. He
then coats those Finished seg
ments of a batik with wax to
prevent staining them while he
continues working on the ba
tik’s other areas.
Sekanwagi, a professional
artist for the past seven years,
said he likes to use his batiks to
depict Ugandan culture,
folklore and mythical African
stories involving buried trea
sures and ghosts.
In his batiks, Sekanwagi said,
he also tries to encourage Afri
can young people to go back to
working the land rather than
leaving for the big cities where
they think they can Find jobs
and money. They often end up
disappointed, Sekanwagi said.
Sekanwagi, 30, originally
worked with oil painting but re
luctantly turned to batik in or
der to sell to tourists and to sur
vive as a sidewalk vendor in
Africa.
In Nairobi, Kenya, he’s con
sidered a celebrity artist.
“There’s nothing to it as far
as the actual making (of a ba
tik),” Sekanwagi said. “My work
is controlled, I do exactly what I
want to do with batik.”
Gallery visitors stood nearby
to listen as Sekanwagi described
his shading techniques and the
manner in which he titles his
works. Several stopped to shake
his hand and compliment him
on the 26-piece exhibit.
Sekanwagi said that although
he’s not a political man, he felt
he had to flee Africa in 1977 af
ter events had become so tu
multuous under Idi Amin’s
reign.
“Things were just too bad for
a creative man,” Sekanwagi
said. “There was just no way I
could have stayed in Uganda. I
would miss it more if it were a
safe place.”
The program adviser for
MSC Arts committee, Theresa
Chiang, said Sekanwagi’s batiks
are more distinctive because
they are precisely defined
whereas in traditional batiks are
usually blurry or hazy.
“I think (Sekanwagi) de
scribes the contemporary Afri
can tribal scenes very well as it
does represent one phase of Af
rican culture,” Chiang said.
“His work is contemporary.”
Sekanwagi’s exhibit was
sponsored by both the MSC
Arts Committee and the MSC
Black Awareness Committee.
Chiang said that although Se
kanwagi’s batiks are for sale, the
MSC Gallery is not run like a
commercial gallery. No prices
are listed in the gallery.
Anyone interested in buying
a Sekanwagi batik should con
tact Chiang at 845-1515. Prices
range from $300 to $1,000,
Chiang said.
Sekanwagi’s works have been
on exhibit in such places as Lon
don, Nairobi, Washington D.C.
and Limburg, Belgium.
The Sekanwagi exhibit will
be in the Memorial Student
Center until Feb. 26. After that,
Sekanwagi plans to take his
works to Austin and Houston
for more exhibits
“I like the way people like my
work,” Sekanwagi said. “I think
I express myself very simply
and expressively.”
caped convicts killed man, still loose
ijjnited Press International
KNOXVILLE, Term. — Two
|ed convicts killed a retired
iiaessman grilling steaks in
|ck yard, abducted his wife
Jproke out of a dragnet by
ftg 400 miles across the
■ before freeing the wife un-
I ed Wednesday.
“I hope we get them before
v? Bxxly else gets killed,” said
■an County Chief Deputy
■ Westmoreland in Bristol.
, pKibeth “Bo” Windrow, 57,
m jKnoxville police the fugi-
I BR efl * ier ly' n R on l * ie floor-
11 H of her car at a rest stop
|l)f Knoxville about 6 a.m.
B fled in a waiting car, she
id,put she was too frightened
humani«4oL
ciety and The search for Ronald Free-
jvidencep! 41, and James Clegg, 30,
Id from west Tennessee to
jliotmtainous area around
is sttDp R^p| a i on g q ie Tennessee-
,|iia border.
iider fr#4 e se men are extremely
ises spina-igcrous,” said Tennessee
jntarypiippu of Investigation agent
■ Davenport. “They made
Jtal statements that they will
sk. ait' m takgn a ii ve> ”
i society re ig n 0 f terror that led
your t
i I
is. i w»i
Windrow’s husband to put a
pistol in his belt Tuesday night
before he went out to grill
steaks moved swiftly eastward
with the fugitives. Westmore
land said his office received at
least 20 calls from frightened
Bristol residents within a few
hours of word that the fugitives
might be headed their way.
Westmoreland said officers
in Bristol were patrolling three
neighborhoods where Clegg
once lived, knocking on doors
and telling residents to watch
out for suspicious people.
“We’re watching these areas
pretty close because we know
he’s still got friends living
there,” he said.
Knoxville Police Chief Rob
ert Marshall said Windrow was
“trying to help us, but bless her
heart, she just doesn’t know
anything.
“She knows that a female
must have come and picked
them up because they were talk-
Freeman, serving 198 years
for two murders, and Clegg,
serving life as an habitual crimi
nal, were among five convicts
who picked up pistols left for
them in a work field and es
caped Fort Pillow prison in
West Tennessee Saturday.
They took two families hos
tage briefly, harming none of
them, and opened fire on their
pursuers twice. They hid from
manhunters in the forests
around Brownsville, Tenn. One
was believed to have fled the
area in a stolen car. Another
was arrested hitchhiking on a
highway Sunday and a third
was talked into surrendering
Tuesday by an elderly woman
who fed him breakfast and pre
ached to him.
SherifFs Sgt. Ray Taylor in
Brownsville said dogs lost the
men’s tracks Sunday. “Evidently
they had doubled back. They
were in a hole back there.
There was one little spot we
the convicts said they had been
hiding in a hole they dug on the
Windrow farm. “They said a
helicopter hovered right over
the top of them but didn’t see
them,” Province said.
Brownsville area citizens had
been fearful of the convicts for
three days and Mrs. Windrow
said her husband had a .45 cali
ber pistol in his belt.
SARAH WATTS
PIANIST, TCACH6R
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drive. But she didn’t see the car said.
and she didn’t see the woman.”
“They did not mistreat her,”
Marshall said. “They told her
they didn’t want to hurt her.”
Lester Province, an attendant
at a service station from which
Windrow called police Wednes
day morning, said she told him
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