MUGISHA FINDS THE LAND GOD GAVE TO CAIN IN WANDEGEYA

In all his life Mathias Mugisha has been looking for the land God gave to Cain, according to Genesis 4:11-16. The land according to the Bible was located east of Eden. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Unfortunately, this land does not exist anywhere on geographical maps; this is the fact that disturbed Mugisha very much. But as luck has it, recently, he found Cain’s land in Wandegeya opposite post office. He found it on the trunk of a dead tree.

If there is anybody who can challenge me that Cain’s land did not look like what I found, he or she should come out and disprove me. But as far as I know, what I found is exactly what God gave to Cain in Nod, east of Eden,asserts Mathias Mugisha, before he puffs.

This story and many other interesting tales are part of Mathias Mugisha’s art exhibition at 32 East Ugandan Art Trust in Kasanga. His art works cost $400 (about sh1, 350,000) each, and they tell stories of nature.

To qualify for this art centre, which is an international art centre, one writes proposal about the project he/she intends to undertake. When you are selected you come for residence (they house you and facilitate you. Mugisha completed his residential period in May 2016 and came up with this exhibition which is titled, Nothing New.

He concentrated on small natural objects; he looked at patterns of nature. This is what is called anthropomorphic photography, which actually tries to give human characteristics to natural objects while alluding to themes of life, death, sexuality and the earth itself.

So what he discovered is that when you look at small objects the way they are structured is the basis of our development or knowledge in most of the things we develop and learn from. In other words, the natural order is the moral source of from which natural law seeks to derive its authority. It encompasses the natural relations of beings to one another in absence of law which natural law attempts to reinforce.

For example, from this you can go and study brick laying in order to build houses, but what you are studying was made by nature long time ago. Mugisha says that if you magnify the wing of a fly you will see exactly what you studies in brick laying. He then asks, who understands fast the brick patterns? The one who studies brick laying or the one who observed and photographed wing of a fly?

This is how he got the title of his exhibition, Nothing New. He has found universal in the small objects. The globe is found in a bubble; the whole world is on a bubble, brick laying in a wing of a fly etc. he concluded that everything is related to one another in nature. The perfect figure of a woman is found in a wasp; the perfect breasts of a woman are nothing than eyes of an insect. All his art works represent nature. Ugandan Art trust is in Kasanga opposite Bank of Baroda.