Ssebakijje Rogers
“Ssebakijje Rogers is my name. I'm a visual artist: a disciplinary painter, an artist, a muralist, painter of walls and above all I am mixed media artist.”
“I'm from Kampala, Uganda. But I'm mostly from Buganda. I grew up in the Wakiso District. I grew up with my grandparents and that has affected my art in a way like the hieroglyphs in my work, the writings are in Luganda because I grew up speaking it at home and I also have newspapers in my work- my grandfather used to buy newspapers each and every day. We had no TV, we had no radio, so these papers were the most authentic mean of communication for us. So I believe that has affected my creation.”
“I use my art as a voice to speak about a lot of things, to address societal issues, things that are going on, as I said earlier in my life, and the people around me. But for a bigger impact different organisations. I work with VODO Art Society where we do decorative art, we do murals for different causes. We have a partnership with the Cancer Institute- we go help fundraise for these young kids that have and are suffering from cancer. I also work with Viva Con Agua where we paint murals about sanitation, personal hygiene and waste disposal. I also work with Feed A Million Mouths International (FAMMI) where we teach the children of Katwe, the slum, and we give them something to eat after every lesson. So I feel like this is impactful to society, something that is bigger than me, because that is, you know, more important than myself.”
“My inspiration comes from the things that have happened to me and the people around me. That's what inspires me, because I'm on a quest of imitating life in my artwork, and I want my artwork, to be posters of life reminding people why we are here as a people, as humans, and how to live. The best ways to live.”
“What motivates me to create is the fact that we are not going to be here forever. I'm not going to be here for a very long time. You know, the day will come and I'll leave this planet. But I feel like my purpose has been intertwined in art, so there is no way I can stop creating. I have to keep creating. I have to keep making all this art because that's my purpose and it's going to be impactful for the people that will live after me, because as an artist we have to document the times we live in. So that keeps me going and it keeps me creating.”
“What keeps me going on a challenging piece is first leaving it aside and let it be so that I can fill my cup again. Because most times it's about energy. Sometimes you are not reflecting. You're not vibrating well with the artwork. Your wavelengths are different. Sometimes it might be in a higher wavelength than you are and you need to fill your cup again. Come back with a bigger vibration to work on it. So a pose on it, I go be with my friends, chat a bit, by the time I come back home, you know, good to go. But also the fact that I work on different artworks at the same time helps me.”
“My favourite artwork. That's a very tricky question because I think it artworks are like children. It's very difficult for a parent to say that that's my favourite child, that's my favourite kid, because every child has a speciality he comes with. But there's some things that I have done so far and they've touched me. For example, this very piece here, it's called Dagala.” (See above images)
“It's of the series Questions of Solitude. When you look at it, it's about my favourite albums. It's about my favourite music stars and the songs I listen to when I'm in my free time. So I really love this piece. I really feel like it's big one.”
“There's also Village Mates. I also love that piece a lot. I did it with my brother Daniel Muhumuza, it was a collaboration. Very big artwork. I loved it. And there's also another piece called Ku Mazzi. Ku Mazzi is also a good one. I love it.”
“...apprenticeship has played a very big role in my journey. ”
“My biggest artistic influence are great men, kings. Starting way back 2017, when I met Darsan Aine. He shaped me. He gave me hope, motivated me to keep creating. And then later I met the Yiga Joshua. I met the Wamala Art. I met Sayyid Bin Musa. I met Hatima (Sebintu), Kwizera. This great man helped me to keep creating. And they've influenced me a lot and they've inspired me.”
“The purpose and goal of my artwork is to imitates life. I am an artist who paints about the things that have happened to me and the things that have happened to the people around me. My main goal is to remind humanity who we truly are and the most important reason for us to be here. Why are we here?”
“We as humans, what's the reason for our existence? That's what I want to portray. That's what I want to communicate to people. And that's why I use all these things, the hieroglyphs of the words, to show the internal environment of my subject, the waste paper to show the external environment of my subject, The fading away, to show that one day everything will fade away. All is vanity at the end of the day. So I want these artworks to be like posters of life, so that when someone looks at my artwork, they can reflect on their own existence, their own being.”
“I define success as a visual artist when someone relates to what I've created. When people look at my paintings and they're like, ‘man, I like this. I I relate with this.’ For example, I have an artwork called Village Mates, you saw it on my Instagram. One of my friends was like, ‘man, this reminds me of my childhood days. It reminds me of how my young days felt like.’
“I feel like that's success. If I can bring something that people relate to.”