THE KAMPALA OLD TAXI PARK BATIK PAINTING

THE KAMPALA OLD TAXI PARK II (2013) 22X34 inches. Batik Art on cotton fabric. Original on sale for USD 300 or 765,000 UGX. Email: lukandwad@yahoo.co.uk

One of the most memorable sights in the Ugandan capital Kampala is the taxi park. At the moment the New taxi park, one of the 2 taxi parks is under construction and as a result, there's a lot of congestion in the remaining park also known as the Old taxi park. A number of smaller parks have cropped up in different parts of the city to cater for the increase in number of passengers. A typical Ugandan commuter taxi is a battered 14 passenger Toyota Hiace. There's a lot of vending within the park of mostly refreshments.
Recently I have been intrigued by thousands of messages pinned at the back window of most of these taxis. The subject matter varies, from political, religious to simply naming children and spouses. I have tried to include a few in this work. On each of these windows, the owner wants to point out something.