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Cultural Origins (1) The stone sculpture in Zimbabwe and the influences which have shaped its directions raise many issues which concern disciplines outside of the fine arts, for example art education, cultural and social anthropology, sociology, ethnography and history. It also raises questions about the role of European "catalysts" in colonial and post-colonial Africa. The sculpture, its origins, influences, subject matter and commercial dimension are of interest to those professionally involved in art education, art practice, community arts, arts administration and the economies of the visual arts. Within a developmental context the initial phases of the sculpture, the National Gallery Workshop School, and the Tengenenge Sculpture Community can be seen as successful community development projects for rural Africans. Stone sculpture in Zimbabwe cannot be explained through the formal analysis that is applied to Western sculpture. Each object cannot be viewed as an art object alone with purely aesthetic values and properties. To be fully understood the sculpture must be placed in a cultural context. For the last 30 years the consistent use of the term "Shona sculpture" has been misleading and puts severe limitations upon our understanding of the subject matter and the derivation of the subject matter in terms of the artists' intentions. The term "Shona sculpture" implies that all the artists are Shona, and implies a collective societal and cultural allegiance on their part. The sculptors are from different societies, indigenous and immigrant to Zimbabwe, with differing ontological and cosmological perspectives, which determine subject matter, treatment of subject and treatment of material. To date, little serious attention has been given in writing to the multi-ethnic sculptors at Tengenenge, the Chewa and Yao from Malawi. the Mbunda from Angola and those from Mozambique. Their sculpture differs greatly from Shona sculpture. No generic term has vet been found to replace Shona sculpture, and the issue was raised at the first Nedlaw Sculpture Forum at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 1984, and tabled in Resolution 7: "Thename 'Shona sculpture' should be dropped forthwith and a more unifying terminology adopted, without obscuring the specific identity of the work involved." What is required is a name that highlights the societal differences of the artists and even the currently used "Stone Sculptors" of Zimbabwe fails to achieve this. Hence the title of this book, Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe. To be fully understood the sculpture cannot be divorced from its context. Art attributes of the sculpture are best judged as to how effectively they convey the subject. The subject must be judged by how clearly it makes a cultural statement. It is only when an understanding of the beliefs of the societies represented by the artists is reached that the sculpture can be fully understood. For example in a Shona sculpture, a primary reading of a man changing into a baboon is easily made. However, unless the significance of metamorphosis in Shona society is understood, a secondary reading cannot be attempted. Images may be recognisable but the meaning behind the images must be known if the sculpture is to be correctly interpreted. When questioned, the sculptors will discuss their sculpture in terms of its cultural statement rather than as an art object, and naturally so, as their ideas about their culture are more fully developed than their ideas about art. What may be thought to be a discussion with an artist about art will be in reality a discussion about his culture and his relationship to it. Each society represented by the artist has a different concept of the Deity. The Shona believe in Mwari, the Great One in the Sky, historically a disinterested philosophical principle, reached only by ancestral spirits. The Yao believe inMulungu a personal God, and the Mbunda of Angola believe in Kalunga, a highly personal God interested in the daily life of each Mbunda. Each society has a range of ancestral spirits of differing makeups and powers. Each has a different way of establishing a collective and individual relationship with the spirits, and each realm of spirits has its own way of communicating with the Deity. Shona belief is based on a personal relationship between the mortal Shona and the spiritual realm established through the intercession of spirit mediums, the mhondoro and the svikiro. The Chewa and Yao have a more exclusive relationship with their spiritual realm. This relationship is largely confined to members of a secret dance society, the Nyago and Ben of the Yao and the Nyao of the Chewa. All Mbunda have a personal relationship with Kalunga, which is celebrated in the inclusive Mkishi dance. Hence the structure of beliefs and their observances varies widely within the societies represented by the sculptors. It is relevant to look at the derivation and origin of the subject matter of the sculpture. Much of it comes from beliefs which are articulated through myth and folklore. Myth is common to all cultures with culturally-determined variants. Through its presentation of archetypal situations, myth establishes moral truths and the differences between good and evil. Folklore is the means by which myth is perpetuated. Through folklore archetypal situations are individualised and given a reality to ensuing generations. Both myth and folklore are part of the rich oral history of all the societies represented by the sculptors. If beliefs are based on myth and folklore rather than couched in reality they are none the less real to those who believe, and they determine perceptions of physical phenomena and animal and human behaviour.
Collectively, the subject matter of much of the sculpture
has its genesis in a mystical onceptualisation of the
societies represented by the artists. This conceptualisation
is the strongest influence on subject matter although it is
personalised in terms of the artists beliefs and attitudes to
beliefs. Despite the changes that have taken place in the
recent history of the country,, subsequent movement of
established artists from rural areas to Harare, and
improvements in material culture, the subject matter of the
sculpture has hardly changed accordingly. Despite
observation of and participation in the changes which have
taken place in Zimbabwe since Independence, sculptors
have seldom chosen to represent these changes in their
work. If it is agreed that at least the work of the older and
wellestablished artists is culturally authentic, this would
indicate that on the part of these artists, despite the effect of
the change, traditional beliefs have been retained. Even
among most urbanised artists, the "real world" depicted is
that of the rural African. An explanation for this may be that
the changes which have taken place in the lives of the older artists have not been accompanied by
educational development and political awareness which
would make them more sensitised to the new social and
political situation in Zimbabwe and there has been nothing
to replace their traditional allegiances.
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