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1st Edition - 2006THE NEWSLETTER REFLECTIONS NEWS AND VIEWS INTRODUCTION:It is indeed a pleasure to write this Newsletter for Art Creations Africa, which has made Zimbabwe´s stone sculpture a feature of the lives of so many South Africans and others in the world today.Today the stone sculpture made in Zimbabwe is so much part of many people´s existence, and a contributor to their well being in many different ways. Those who own the sculptures, which contain messages and have comforting things to say, about the upholding of family life, the need for a spiritual reason for living, the blessing of marriage and love as a long term commitment, are uplifted. The sculptors themselves have the benefits of a successful creative way of life, travel, sustainability, and a broadening of their cultural outlooks. The gallerists, curators and those engaged in dealerships enjoy the relationship they have with the sculptors themselves, professional and personal and their visits to Zimbabwe with a sense of mission and purpose, visits which take them to the rural areas and to the high density suburbs, visits which give them a panoramic view of Zimbabwe today. The older great traditions of sculpture come from countries, Greece in ancient times, Mesoamerica, Italy from the Renaissance to the Baroque; and periods of history which brought about great civilisations. Sculpture at its most meaningful has dealt with matters of the spirit, and indeed helped people to uphold their beliefs in God and the Gods and an after life. So there is stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, a country with a cultural and spiritual history which still has a profound effect on the way people live and behave, and that cultural and spiritual history is reflected most eloquently in the stone sculpture. Stone readily identified with Zimbabwe the world over has been the resource for artists and a catalyst for creativity since the late Stone Age. In some countries stone is just another material for sculpture, not tied to cultural history and national development, Sculptors pay tribute to the place of stone in Zimbabwe´s cultural history. The sculpture gives voice to Zimbabwe´s past, its spiritual traditions which brought about stable social order and organisation, family life and marital harmony and engaged nature and the natural world. It also gives voice to Zimbabwe today challenged in so many directions, but remaining to its credit a peaceful and hardworking country. Today young sculptors, although caught up in current social issues continue in their sculpture to reflect on Zimbabwe´s spiritual past in their work. While the bastions remain and flourish, The Tengenenge Sculpture Community in Guruve, Chapungu Park, Dominic Benhura´s Studio, new initiatives emerge, organisations and individuals who arrange exhibitions, publish books on individual sculptors. They enable the stone sculpture to retain its position and occupy a unique space in an increasingly internationalised art world dominated by art, which has no background no august tradition to give it identity. No sense of belonging and no recognisable cultural heritage. *Australian Celia Winter Irving is author of eleven books on Zimbabwe´s stone sculpture respected internationally and locally and a regular writer for the Herald Zimbabwe, Southern Times, Windhoek Namibia and Air Zimbabwe´s In Flight Journal Sky Host. She is Curator at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Back to Newsletters >> |
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