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O | 32 (or to be more precise 0°00’ : 32°00’) are the co-ordinates for the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. The Ssese islands serendipitously lie at the centre of the geographical triangle of the cities in which I live and work and that inspire my work – Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai. I first visited the Ssese islands in 1993, which at the time involved a day long journey from Kampala on a decrepit streamer. Then, as now, the islands represent a romantic enigma – the 84 islands scattered across a huge shallow lake that lies at the heart of Africa. Partly cloaked in forest, that give way to grasslands and sandy beaches – they are tropical islands that would appeal to any latter day Gauguin. But these island are also home to densely packed and desperately poor villages, the people rife with malaria, HIV, and the blue waters of the lake are un-swimmable due to bilharzia. The villagers fish, but smuggling is a more important economic activity. When I last visited the islands, fish stocks were falling due to the invasion of water hyacinths plants that were reducing oxygen levels in the lake, and the income of the villagers. This does not prevent the villagers revelling late into the night to Nigerian afrobeat, their faces illuminated by the blue screens of their phones. The location and this duality - reality v/s romanticism became an important inspiration for this series of works. Although isolated, the islands are as much part of the modern world as any other part of Africa. The images presented here are both maps worked till they are unrecognisable and imagined maps formed by the flow of paint. They reflect the experience of the world from the air but are also experiments in paint, which forms shapes that are indistinguishable from the shapes eroded and formed in nature. The works for the exhibition are worked on drafting film and printed photomontage on Sepia film. Given the lightness and durability of the works, they are suspended and “float free” from the ground as I often do – being at once paintings and installations.

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  1. Tales of the uninhabited isles by Richard Ketley, Image 1.

    Tales of the uninhabited isles

    Acrylic on drafting film

    134 x 110 x 0.1 cm

  2. Another country by Richard Ketley, Image 1.

    Another country

    Oil and charcoal on drafting film

    120 x 90 x 0.1 cm

  3. Where do we come from? by Richard Ketley, Image 1.

    Where do we come from?

    Acrylic / Photomontage on sepia film

    184 x 330 x 0.1 cm

  4. Spirit of the Islands by Richard Ketley, Image 1.

    Spirit of the Islands

    Oil and Oxides on Drafting Film

    182 x 335 x 0.1 cm

  5. Boda Boda Repose Monochrome by Richard Ketley, Image 1.

    Boda Boda Repose Monochrome

    Charcoal powder on drafting film

    84 x 140 cm