Shona

This is one of several Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe that we have in our conservatory. We used to visit Zimbabwe regularly - such a wonderful country! But we haven't been back for probably 15 years, Brits are not very welcome. We bought this piece about 25 years ago, at an exhibition from the Harare Sculpture Garden in the Victoria Falls Hotel.

Sculpture in Zimbabwe really only started in 1957 when the Rhodes National Gallery opened in Salisbury (as Harare then was), and the director encouraged local craftsmen to try their hand at carving the local soapstone. It is now a world-famous art form. The pieces are all different from one another and made entirely by hand. The artists from the Shona tribe believe that the stone has a spirit and life of its own, as no natural substance is inanimate. You can certainly see and feel how much these "stone" birds love one another :-))