Spirits in Stone
SHONA SCULPTURE OF ZIMBABWE
The iconic stone sculpture called Shona, whose name means “great stone house,” comes from the southern African state of Zimbabwe. The sculpture gets its name from the Shona people, the largest indigenous group in Zimbabwe. Similar to many cultures around the world, the Shona believe that every living thing contains a spirit and through the process of carving, the spirit in the stone will be revealed. A variety of native stones, including serpentine, granite, and rare verdite, is polished with hot wax to a high shine. The stones vary in color from deep emerald green, smoky gray, inky black, and dark brown. Each sculptor’s individual style draws from a wide array of source material—dreams, spiritual visions, historical figures, and everyday objects—to depict semi-abstract mythic beings, animals, and people. Well-known sculptor Bernard Maternera compares the process for discovering the hidden forms inside each stone to the act of peeling fruit: “A rock is like a fruit—like an orange or a banana. You don’t eat them without peeling them first. I open the rocks. The fruit is inside.”
Many of these sculptors have reached international acclaim, and although this art form began in the 1950s, it has already caught the attention of serious international collectors—the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Queen Elizabeth II contain multiple pieces of Shona work. —SBR
Shona sculpture of a family unit.