The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Leisure Reporter
BULAWAYO-BASED visual artiste, Owen Maseko, violated his promise to stay away from controversy and keep his art work clean of explicit content, the director of the National Art Gallery in Bulawayo, Voti Thebe said in an interview.
About five years ago Maseko together with Thebe, were arrested for holding an exhibition, which was said to undermine the authority of the President and also offensive to persons of a particular race or religion.
Maseko, who is no stranger to controversy, had his latest art work taken down a day after it was put up as part of an exhibition titled Kwacha.
In an interview, the gallery director Thebe said Maseko’s art was “clean” when it was put up for the exhibition the night before but was polluted by the artiste on the day of the exhibition.
“He didn’t follow instructions. The work was alright when it was put up the day before for the exhibition. His initial concept for the exhibition was clean but somehow he decided to be controversial, provocative,” said Thebe.
He said that Maseko, on the night of the exhibition brought with him a box of chalk and started writing obscenities and vulgarities on his art, which is what led the exhibition to be taken down.
“He refused to rub off the insults and this is what forced us to take his art down. What he refuses to understand is that freedom of expression has limits and this is a public gallery, which is patronised by many people including children. How then can we have his art displayed there? If he had told us before that he wanted to have such an exhibition then we would have made an effort to approach the Censorship Board for a licence to have such an exhibition,” said Thebe.
He noted that as an art institution they had considered giving Maseko a second chance but his actions proved that he was not repentant.
“We thought of giving him a second chance but his actions were just unacceptable. What he wrote on his art was uncouth and too obscene for the public. We can’t guarantee that we won’t have his work being exhibited or not but it is up to him to have art that is suitable to be exhibited publicly,” said Thebe.
This would be the second time Maseko has his art taken down. His last exhibition, which was locked up at the gallery for about five years, nearly landed him behind bars. It, however, was taken down early this year.
Maseko could not be reached for comment on the issue.
However, perhaps in response of his art being taken down he posted a message on Facebook, which read: “This sculpture installation seeks to explore the interdependence amongst individuals in our society and challenging the idea that people are not islands and cannot live alone. It interrogates questions and challenges norms in our culture. It critically addresses gender stereotypes that have over the years created abuse, human rights violation in our communities. It educates and empowers individuals’ freedom to choose, human dignity, bringing the idea of equality to promote a ‘human rights for all or nothing’ platform.
“The sculpture installation brings back the open mindedness we all had when we were all growing up . . . We were once children, we were once innocent, let’s play together. Then, we were not worried, bothered or sensitive about our bodies, girl or boy, we would just play all day long.”
