Stephen Garan’nga Visual Art
The Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre in Bulawayo and the National Gallery Visual Arts Studios (formerly the BAT Workshop) in Harare have, for more than three decades been training young artists in the use of welded metal. BOC Zimbabwe (previously Oxyco and Rhodox) also conducted welding

classes attended by many artists.

The growth of weld art, until a decade ago, was a national collective effort, a shared involvement of artists, institutions and the industry. The results came to fruition in the Zimbabwe heritage exhibitions where at some stage all sculptural awards were awarded to artists who worked with scrap metal.

Wood carving has had its fair share of sculptors though the accessibility of high quality strong trees suitable for sculpting leaves a lot to be desired. Trees like teak, mahogany and ebony are not easy to find whilst at the same time are not allowed to be cut by conservationists and State laws. But artists always find ways using other fairly strong ordinary trees.

Taking particular attention to works by masters of found objects in sculpture, we hastily draw our attention to a series of musical instruments masterpieces by the late Keston Beaton. They do not function in any literal sense but their forms allude to various types of musical instrument: harp, guitar, saxophone, etc.

Their shapes and structures play on this allusion while various elements create visual correspondence with sounds. Whether it is a large brass “horn” mouth, the taut twanging “strings”, the varied resonance boxes, or finger holes and keys, the items evoke individual imaginary noises.

The colours too are visual references to sounds; often a single point of sharp red or flat blue, the glowing brass of “Midas, Golden and Bliss”, the glint of aluminium or the muted browns of “Psalms”. More direct aide-memories are also incorporated such as bells, shells, animal horns, spoons and even a cock-screws, all of which bring sounds to mind.

Intriguingly, once the viewer focuses on this “audible” aspect, every bit and pieces conjures a range of musical equivalents. Unheard, fictional and therefore more flexible than the real sounds, these mix in the imagination to suggest varying contemporary compositions and echoes of melodies: combinations of traditional, European, urban, folk, modern and African. These objects are musical instruments, never seen before. They evoke a new and very contemporary music.The human being was at the centre of their making. They are human in scale, much related in size to conventional instruments, intimate in detail and fragile in construction. They contain an uneasy tension caused partly by the insecure ties that hold them together and partly by the incongruity of their elements. They are contradictory; seem ready to fall or fly apart. Their components are connected but not fused, retaining their distinct features.

The belonging of the parts to the whole remains tenuous and reminds us of their continuing transience. They can be read as metaphors for personal identity and, in this, the artist’s own biography is a key.

Other ambassadors of found objects in sculpture include Tapfuma Gutsa, the late Charles Kamangwana, Danisile Ncube and Matheus Nyaungwa to mention a few.

They are also outstanding in weldart where other greats evolve – like Arthur Azevedo, Adam Madebe, Israel Israel, Richard Jack, Stephen Garan’anga, Greg Shaw, Mambakwedza and Chenjerai Mutasa, the late John Gusinyu and Martin Mushongato mention but a few.

Senior metal master practitioners, Arthur Azevedo works effectively with simplified line, shape and form from the sixties whilst Adam Madebe and Israel Israel who both boast gigantic pieces in public and private spaces across continents take precedence in precise cutting and shaping sheets of the metal before welding. A number of other local sculptors in weld-art have performed remarkably representing the country on the international art scene.

Chrispen Matekenya, Gerry Dixon, Methuseli Tshuma, Zephania Tshuma, Tapfuma Gutsa amongst others are true narrators in wood with international recognition.

A crop of young and upcoming as well as the established have become connective artists, working in contemporary mode but along an old artistic line which stretches back to the bricolage of classic African artifacts. To conventional materials such as wood, metal and stone they add modern ingredients such as plastic, rubber, glass, cardboard and lot more. Within each material they have moved away from handcrafting (carving, casting and moulding) the ‘pure’ material to using cast-off objects already fashioned for various purposes.

However, handwork remains the basis of the process by which they connect and bind the very desperate elements. Curious juxtaposition and unexpected combinations result in dense complicated yet simple objects.

The qualities of the materials – colours, dents, edges, texture, volumes and weights – are used directly and the structuring is fully visible. Awkwardness, irregularity, damage, are not concealed.

This strongly confirms there is marked continuity with the past and that native African people’s work is naturally sculptural.

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