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Jay Polly back to his first love, art

Friday February 26 2016
RwandaArtArticlekk

Rwandan rapper Joshua Tuyishime during one of his painting sessions at Uburanga Art Centre in Kigali. PHOTO | ANDREW I KAZIBWE

Rwandan rapper Joshua Tuyishime alias Jay Polly has decided to join Augustine Hakizimana on a journey to revive his visual art roots.

At Uburanga Art Centre, in Kimihurura, a suburb in Kigali, Tuyishime and Hakizimana, a visual artist and longtime colleague have for the past month spared time, in concentration as they paint in preparation for their upcoming joint exhibition dubbed Rural and Urban progress.

“Much as Tuyishime is popular as a rapper, I’ve known him behind the brush, where he is also skilful,” explains Hakizimana. The two, last held a joint exhibition at Umubano Hotel in 2009.

His love for fine art developed through secondary school at Group Scolaire, Kicukiro (ESK) between 2004 and 2008, and later through the then emerging Ivuka Art gallery, with fellow young artists Jean Bosco Bakunzi, Collin Sekajugo and Augustine Hakizimana.

“We were very few painters then and people used to purchase art works since the market wasn’t as competitive as it is today,” Tuyishime explains.

But as Tuyishime painted, he wrote song lyrics too. After saving approximately $2,000 from painting, he recorded music, which picked up. Since then he has been known through songs which include Ndacyariho ndahumeka, Malaika, Nibda to Deux Foi Deux and Oh my God, which have put him the music spotlight.

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His love for music took him away from the visual arts, “Music is so demanding, with a lot of appointments and tours,” he explains.

But of recent, Tuyishime, who is also a Primus Guma Guma Super Star 2014 Award winner, has embarked on reviving his visual art career.

“Am not quitting music, but I would like to balance all my acts. It’s also to inspire more youth into creative expression,” Tuyishime says.

Their works

The exhibition, Rural and Urban progress will kick off on March 14 till April 14. The audience will travel through both the urban and rural development in Rwanda as viewed artistically by both artistes.

With a total of 50 paintings ranging between $80 and $1,500, the paintings mainly on canvas and acrylics share the same concept, though each artist uses a different approach and painting tactics.

Through Tomato Market, 60 by 70 cm piece Tuyishime portrays the ordinary life of a Rwandan tomato trader in a typical market. He doesn’t use strong dark colours, but his semi-abstract works approach the idea well enough.

Kibeho 1979, in mainly black and white is a portrait of human images assembled outside a church taking the audience to the early religious times in Rwanda.

Tuyishimiye further brings in culture through one of his pieces dubbed The Beat. It is a painting of men beating traditional Rwandan drums, which relates to his fifth album Ibwiza, a lead song recorded with a blend of tradition.

Hakizimana, 28, showcases semi abstract pieces. For instance, Movement one of his paintings shows masses of people moving towards what he says is the future, while The City depicts the urban infrastructural setting of Kigali city. With strong colours, he paints his way to an abstract city view, but more captivating is the reflection of the buildings, which too is shared in the foreground.

For Kigali, which holds no water body closest to buildings, the artist crafts his way to depict how it would be, if such nature met development. Hakizimana, who has held over 3 exhibitions also, is to showcase mix media art work crafted out of banana fibre which he further paints on using acrylics.