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| Enjoy the current
Saper Galleries exhibition Couples
and Families: Hand-carved Shona Stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe.
And yes, we can ship your selection to you
anywhere in the world! The sale of these sculptures provides opportunities and education for the families of the artists who live in a country where the unemployment rate is 95% and the GDP is under $100 per capita. Nearly 70% of the population lives in poverty. The country's budget of $133 million is not much more than the cost of a Van Gogh or Picasso painting. |
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The basic
tenant of the Shona people is "live together and the
culture will thrive". The spirits
of the Shona peoples' ancestors come to them in their dreams to reveal
the
images that dwell within the rock. After
quarrying the rock with pickax and pry bar, the artists use handmade
tools to
release the spirits trapped within the multicolored serpentine.
Shona
sculptures impress, stimulate and
inspire.
A
central
belief and practice in traditional Shona culture is ukama,
which means living together in close family relationships. Family
ties are all-important to these
people, and from birth through death and beyond, Shona families are
bound
together in the mutual respect, support and love that is the greater
extended
family -- ukama. These sculptures started with the artist traveling in the Zimbabwe countryside in search of a particularly powerful stone spirit. The stone is dug out of the earth and chiseled (for weeks or months depending on the size and hardness of the stone) to reveal a colorful soul which finally appears in the final washing stages, just before firing and polishing. Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, said the "Shona art is something like the anthem of our freedom, and remains now at the center of our culture...(in fact) the artists are the precursors of our history." Sculptures like these evoke the feelings of harmony and peace -- ukama -- that earn the blessings of the ancestors and reminds them of our closer global family. Enjoy! (Above)
Family of 8 Brown rapoko stone By Taurai
Mlambo 23 1/4" tall $900
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