BATIK ART BY LUKANDWA DOMINIC

I took this photograph from one of the buildings surrounding the old taxi park in Kampala. I liked the formation made by the umbrellas. There's a trader inside each umbrella selling all sorts of stuff, from stationary to underwear. They are strategically located at the end of a long concrete staircase which brings in people on their way to board taxis going to different parts of the city and country. The closeness of the umbrellas says much about the people working inside them. Once you reach there, you not only realise that they deal in similar merchandise, but also they tend to be discussing a topic among themselves.These discussions are merely shouts amidst the noise from the park. The topics range from politics, cheating wives and husbands, fake pastors to a passerby whose tummy reminds them of corrupt policemen. Such is the endless inspiration i get whenever i pass through the taxi park.

This small batik SHARING KNOWLEDGE (2010) 10"X16" , I brought together 3 characters in a conversation. I took time to unify them with the same dress code (Masai). Using the same color theme, i was successful in shading light and dark tones in the dressing and the result was stunning. This is one of my favorite batiks.

This batik is a hint to where my work is headed. I now dedicate most of my time on the detail in the busuti , the traditional central Uganda dressing. In this batik i wanted to come up with a blue color theme with a distinct patterning but with a unifying feature of big and small circles.