Qaeqhao Moses is a young printmaker from
D'kar, North of Ghanzi. He joined Peter and Maud Brown's Kuru Art Project
in 1994. At Kuru (Botswana) Moses worked with Thamae Setshogo, Dada Ogam
and Thamae Gaashe. He learnt mostly by watching them and other artists
in this way gradually widening his experience.
He stayed on his father's farm at D‘kar learning about hunting and gathering
foods from the bush. “We were not taught anything but given materials
and told ‘you can do it'” he remembers. His medium is producing linocuts.
Most of the images he produces stem directly from his traditional San
lifestyle depicting the hunting, gathering and the myths and legends of
animals and plants found in the bush.
During his many years at Kuru Moses attended several workshops: in 1996
he was a participant in the Thapong International Artists' Workshop. At
these workshops young local artists work together with older and more
established artists from Botswana, the region and from abroad. This mixture
of age and experience is very important as youth invigorates age and experienced
established artists can push younger artists to make discoveries they
may never have attempted to make on their own.
Moses' linocuts are broken up with small repeated points similar to the
aboriginal style. Moses was impressed on his journeys to Perth with the
Australian rock art he viewed.
Moses was involved in a project in which fourteen Kuru artists worked
together to produce a book called Qauqwa. They drew images and devised
a story that would link their drawings, which were made into prints. The
Project Leader Tamar Mason worked on producing the text.
Experiences in the bush invigorate and stimulate the creativity and Moses
would go back to Thabong as often as possible. June in Thapong is when
the Wildlife Department issues hunting licences to San people enabling
them to legally hunt with traditional weapons. In 2002 Moses relocated
to Gaborone to work at Thapong.
Moses is interested in teaching. Passing on his knowledge of more than
just lino cutting and multicolour printing, but to pass on the wisdom
of his culture. “In my culture we do not just learn
from books; we keep our knowledge in our heads and by passing on the knowledge
it keeps the knowledge alive.” He keeps the knowledge of hunting
and the wisdom of his ancestors alive in his work.
Complied by the Cape Gallery 2008. |