Few days ago we went to an arboretum (or some kind of dendrologic garden) in Prague and were surprised to find that there is an outdoor exhibition going on. It was an exhibition of African statues from Zimbabwe, and was very interesting! These pieces were made by African artists in village called Tengenenge near the city of Harare. They are made of the stone serpentinit (I hope it´s an international name :). In czech it´s called "hadec" which means something like a snake. The stone is mostly black, sometimes brown or green, and the statues are made by hand only, the artists are very poor, so no mechanical devices are used. The surface is waxed, is beautifully shiny and can stand up to any weather all year long, the material is extremely durable. We were amazed by this art, and the fact that it came all the long way from Africa. Our favourite was the statue of a woman carrying a baby, but I loved pretty much everything. I chose only few favourite photos from many others, because there was so much of it.
The woman carrying a baby is my favourite, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, because I've read this kind of stone was used by artists from the North-Western coast of North America as well... and some of those statues remind me of that.