JOIN JANE CONTINUING TO MAKE SENSE OF ART
And this month Jane is looking at Shona Sculpture.
I first became aware of ‘Shona Sculpture’ a few months ago but didn’t know what it was – I liked some of it very much and was curious about the stone used and the effects achieved – but then forgot all about it! A visit to The Sculpture Park in Surrey changed all that!
Shona Sculpture is a modern stone carving art form from Zimbabwe and is named after the predominant Shona ethnic group in Zimbabwe.
Did you know that Zimbabwe means ‘house of stone’?
For centuries traditional stone work was used for construction and decoration but in the middle of the 20th century, with the help of an English artist, Frank McEuan, the new Shona art form was born, blending ancient Shona traditions with contemporary techniques.
The sculptors work entirely by hand in stone native to Zimbabwe – hard black springstone – as seen above, and richly coloured serpentine and soap stones. Most of the stone is sourced from The Great Dyke – a huge horseshoe shaped geological formation in Zimbabwe.
The piece above, ‘Tender Moment’ by Lucknos Chigwaru is a beautiful example of the effects the sculptor can achieve cutting into springstone. The photo doesn’t really do it justice – the detail in the hair and the baby’s hat is extraordinary. The textures and flow the sculptor creates is nothing short of remarkable. How can a lump of stone evoke such emotion?!
The main themes of Shona Sculpture are family, nature and ancestral spirits- expressing every human emotion with such clarity and simplicity whether it is grief, humour, anxiety or elation.
“The art is known for its extraordinary emotional power, achieved through solid forms, beautiful surfaces and a striking simplicity” (The Sculpture Park).
Below is my favourite piece – chosen for its humour and simplicity. It’s called ‘Happy Elephant’ and it’s by Fungai Dodzo, created out of cobalt stone.
