Sad and Happy News - November 2008

We start this week with the sad news the death of Clever Kangadzi. He was killed in a motorcar accident on his way to watch a football match. Clever was known for carving out of a single piece of stone a double torso. These torsos looked like a reflection and were highly sought after. To the best of my knowledge he was the only artist brave enough to do this. We are sorry saddened his passing. A waste of a talented person.

The exhibition at the hotel in Wiesbaden has been taken down. Godfrey Mutembuka is back in Zimbabwe getting ready for his time at Neethlingshof Winery outside Stellenbosch. The hotel has asked to please return next year. This exhibition will start on 29 August 2009 and close 1 November 2009. This could be our last exhibition in Wiesbaden. Should any of our friends have a venue to which we could move please let me know. We try to do exhibitions in Europe during the following months April to June and September, October.

The move from the gallery where we were for 11 years is complete and we are about 90% into our new home with 150 sculptures in the gallery and eventually 43 sculptures in a garden setting. This gives prospective customers the opportunity to see sculpture in a garden setting and a better idea as to what it should look like in their garden.

Jannetta has just completed adding 45 new sculptures today to the internet (19 November 2008). They are the latest edition bringing our total number of sculpture on our website to 410. Please have a look.

Our next batch of new sculpture should be with us by end of January 2009. Hopefully they will be on the website by February. We will keep you informed as to what is happening. The news from Zimbabwe is very grim. To buy sculpture is the easy part. To get it out of Zimbabwe is the difficult part. There is no packing material. There is no money to pay artists, as you have to change a ⅓ off your purchases money at the bank so that you are able to obtain a CD 1 Form to be able to export the sculpture out of Zimbabwe. If you do not have a CD 1 Form the sculpture will not clear the Zim border customs. When you cash your ⅓ requirement the bank does not have the money, Zim notes to give you. The customers, like me, end up placing money into artist accounts in mega numbers, which I honestly believe nobody understands. (Remember Zimbabwe has already cancelled 9 zero?s off their currency). The US dollar is Zim 3 500 000 to 1 US. Inflation at the last official report was 15 000 000%. Prices double over night. With all this in mind you have to try and trade. Yes, we do pay the artist as much as possible in hard currency; however, it is illegal for a Zimbabwean citizen to carry foreign currency. All this makes it very difficult to obtain sculpture. The result of all this chaos is that artists are trying to work in South Africa. The Zimbabwean Mining Department is stopping the export of raw stone. Also they have increased the stone price where permits have been obtained. Sculpture is control by the availability of good close-grained stone. To date the ?Great Dyke? is the only known source in Africa.

Last but not least. My able assistant Miss Jannetta Bekker leaves me at the end of December. She is getting married and then going to live in a small or should I say very small town Kuruman. The nearest town of any reasonable size is Kimberley - The Diamond Town - 200 kilometers away. We all wish her well and hope that she will be able to settle down in her new environment. This might not be the end of our relationship as she could still be doing all our computer work from this remote town. Jannetta we wish you and Jaco everything of the best and may your new venture be a long and very happy one.

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