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Cultural Origins (2) Because of the societal differences among the artists, the sculpture has no collective symbolic language. Regional differences between the Shona sculptors can determine different beliefs and different observances of beliefs. Hence there is no overall language for Shona sculpture alone. Common to all Zimbabwean sculptors is the primacy of their relationship with their material, the locally-mined stone: serpentine, springstone, steatite, fagamaso and fagamazi which is largely found in the mountains of the Great Dyke at Tengenenge, and the decorative Chiweshe Stone. Some artists, in particular Shona artists, feel that there is a presence within the stone, a material truth which must be respected and preserved, and a spiritual force which guides them through the work. The stone before it is carved has a highly sculptural quality. Some stone it seems was sculpted before it became sculpture, and requires little working. The use of stone by the sculptors speaks of the long historical association of stone with Zimbabwe, and of the depth of the country's historical roots. The stone which is millions of years old imparts a sense of history to the sculpture. It conveys the feeling that the sculpture is as old as the material, and is part of a centuriesold continuity of art practice among the societies represented by the artists. Some sculptors find the subject indicated by the shape and form of the stone, others predetermine the subject and arrive at it independently of the material. However, even if the shape and form of the stone has no indication of the subject, surface, texture and colour are essential aspects of the finished sculpture. Part of the stone can be left uncarved, colour within the stone or the grain of the stone can be used to highlight the threedimensional quality of the work. Solutions to formal problems are largely intuitive and usually arrived at while carving, resolved prior to the commencement of work or at the conclusion. Initially the subject is blocked out and detail then inserted. Finish is achieved by a highly-polished surface. In the stone sculpture of Zimbabwe, matters of style are determined by matters of culture. Artists have distinctly recognisable styles often achieved early in their careers. A distinctive style does not indicate a repetition of subject matter but confidence in a certain way of expressing subject and a control over the material. There is a broader sense of style which is distinctive to artists from their parent societies which is determined by subject, approach to and treatment of subject and approach to and treatment of material. Although the Yao and Chewa artists had not made sculpture in their parent countries before coming to Tengenenge, they were familiar with objects associated with their traditional cultures. Their sculpture is strongly imagist and the matrix of the image used stems from the richness of Yao and Chewa culture, in particular from the objects used by the dancers in their secret societies. While the masks worn bv the dancers had no function outside their objecthood, they were pari of the ritual of the dance. They hid the identity of the dancer., and disguised his human attributes. Often the dancer represented a caricature of those who were socially undesirable in society, in particular a European, and the mask he wore was naturalistic to convey a recognisable character. Historically, The dances occupied a central position in Chewa and Yao society. They were performed at rites of passage such as the initiation of young men, and at funeral services. The dances thus served as instruments of social control. and a means of communicating with ancestral spirits. Yao and Cliewa sculpture often assumes the shape and form of the masks used in the dances, and figures follow the shape and form of the dancers. There is in Yao sculpture such as that of Josia Manzi at Tengenenge a sense of' the caricature in the Yao dance. Often human and animal forms are exaggerated to become a parody of reality and a fantasy of the perceptual. It is apparent from Yao and Chewa sculpture that the Yao and Cliewa view of the world contains the presence of spiritual beings and things exclusive to the Yao and Chewa. which assurrie far more importance than the creatures and beings of the natural world and natural phenomena. In some Yao sculpture, the tools seem to have taken their own course rather than having been guided by the human band. In some Yao and Chewa sculpture, the imagination of the artist seems to have visited a fantastic dream world, to return to the real world, spent, exhausted and in need of revival. Often Yao sculpture seems in a state of formal turmoil, there is a chaotic realisation of statement, and no recognisable notions o sculptural propriety. Central to Yao beliefs and the traditional structure of Yao society are animal fables with moral overtones handed down by the Yao elders. Here animals of all kinds engage in social relationships and find themselves in essentially human predicaments, sometimes with a spiritual dimension. Yao sculpture speaks of the strange couplings and amazing consorts which result from these relationships, such as that of the late Wazi Maicolo at Tengenenge. Many sculptures are composite animals, rather than distinctive and recognisable creatures and individuals of a species. These animals share each other's features and borrow each others limbs and are creatures from a surreal world. In Yao and Chewa sculpture, subject matter is not so much influenced by shape and form of the stone so much as it is by the imagination. Space breaks up the mass and plays a major part in defining the form and nature of the subject. There is little use of the curved form of the stone; angular properties and sharper edges convey a tension in the work which is seldom present in Shona sculpture. In Yao and Chewa sculpture the imagination of the artist plays tric s with our notions of reality, and makes the surreal world believable. In fact it becomes the real world and we enter this world and leave it with reluctance. The sculpture of the Mbunda from Angola, such as that of the late Makina Kameya, and Kakonia Kweli at Tengenenge, is stylised and static and has a sense of the exclusively ritual function and service of the mask of the Mkishi dancer. Outside this service, the mask has no meaning, as the dancer has no spiritual role to play. There is no hint of human expression in the heads and there is no presence of the man behind the mask. Features are indicated minimally, depicted by cuts - simple incisions which create facial forms without individualising them. These sculptures speak of the dancer passing into another state of consciousness. The eyes roll back into the head as if avoiding contact with the real world. They seem to see things we cannot see, but fail to recognise what we ourselves observe.
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