Sponsoring art for Zimbabwe Gallery Delta, the publisher and the editor gratefully acknowledge the following sponsors who have contributed to the production of this issue of Gallery magazine: APEX CDRPORATIDN OF ZIMBABWE LIMITED Joerg Sorgenicht NDORO ^RISTON Contents December 1998 2 Artnotes 3 New forms for old : Dak" Art 1998 by Derek Huggins 10 Charting interior and exterior landscapes : Hilary Kashiri's recent paintings by Gillian Wright 16 'A Changed World" : the British Council's sculpture exhibition by Margaret Garlake 21 Anthills, moths, drawing by Toni Crabb 24 Fasoni Sibanda : a tribute 25 Forthcoming events and exhibitions Front Cover: TiehenaDagnogo, Mossi Km, 1997, 170 x 104cm, mixed media Back Cover: Tiebena Dagnogo. Porte Celeste, 1997, 156 x 85cm, mixed media Left: Tapfuma Gutsa. /// Winds. 1996-7, 160 x 50 x 62cm, serpentine, bone & horn © Gallery Publications ISSN 1361 - 1574 Publisher: Derek Huggins. Editor: Barbara Murray. Designer: Myrtle Mallis. Origination: Crystal Graphics. Printing: A.W. Bardwell & Co. Contents are the copyright of Gallery Publications and may not be reproduced in any manner or form without permission. The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the writers themselves and not necessarily those of Gallery Delta. Gallery Publications, the publisher or the editor Articles and Letters are invited for submission. Please address them to The Editor Subscriptions from Gallery Publications, c/o Gallery Delta. 110 Livingstone Avenue, P.O. Box UA 373. Union Avenue, Harare. Zimbabwe. Tel & Fa.x: (263-4) 792135, e-mail: <[email protected]> Artnotes A surprising fact: Zimbabwean artworks are Hivos give support to many areas of And now, thanks to Hivos. contemporary being borrowed by individuals, famiiiiilies. development throughout the world — from artworks by Zimbabwean artists can be businesses and institutions in The forestry, gender issues, health, human rights borrowed by people in The Netherlands. All Netherlands. to education. In this they are similar to other of this is a strong counter to negative trends aid agencies but Hivos is unique in their in Zimbabwe. Thanks to an innovative and open-minded understanding of the essential role of culture approach to art in that country. The in development. Every human being has an Creativity is the key to solving problems, of Netherlands government has estabhshed intrinsic need for the arts which provide all sorts, and Hivos' enlightened support for 'artoteeken" — art lending libraries. sustenance for the heart, mind and spirit, and cultural activities has deeper significance Members of the public can pay a small help us to approach our realities in a more and wider effects than are at first apparent. annual subscription and in return borrow creative way. Gallery magazine, all our readers, and paintings and sculptures to live with in their indeed, all Zimbabweans, are deeply homes or offices for periods ranging from Hivos' support to the arts in southern indebted to Hivos for helping us pull that one month to one year. This system has African countries encompasses, among mental rip-cord. been in operation in The Netherlands for 25 many others, community theatre, the years and, for example, in Dordrecht people Zimbabwe International Book Fair, film In this issue of Gallery we look at can choose from over 8 000 artworks! production and festivals, writers groups, the contemporary directions of art in Africa as District Six Museum Foundation, crafts presented at the 1998 Senegal Biennale, at associations, the Handspring Trust for the 'Changed World' exhibition which "The mind is Puppetry in Education, radio development, highlights developments in British sculpture the outreach programme of the National from the 60s to the present, at lines in Gallery in Bulawayo and, closer to us, the nature, at Hilary Kashiri's view of life. like a parachute. very magazine you are reading. Funding is There are many thoughts in these articles provided along with advice and innovative and the artworks they discuss which can It is only useful ideas. And among Hivos" most notable stimulate a more creative personal attitude to attributes is the practical and low-key life. We are, all of us, parachutists! manner in which they assist, never claiming when it's open." the limelight as "the funders", never The Editor spending money on fanfare or self- promotion when it can be used in more truly This quotation is prominently displayed in constructive ways - which is one of the the head-offices of Hivos (the Humanist reasons for this editorial. The Hivos Institute for Co-operation with Developing Regional Office in Harare, and in particular Countries) in The Netherlands, and is Jan Vossen and Noma Mpofu have been actively pursued and particularly evident in inspirational and instrumental in the their cultural policies. Ireen Dubel, Policy continued publication of Gallery magazine. Officer for Culture, Bureau Africa, at Hivos, first told us about the art-library concept in Through Gallery, the springboard effect of 1997. Always looking for ways to get art to Hivos support is evident. For example: a wider local audience, we thought that an • all schools in Zimbabwe that teach 'A' art library could be a possibility for level art receive sponsored copies of Zimbabwe. The directors of three art Galleiy along with .Schools' Activities libraries in the Netherlands (Artoteek Sheets specifically produced to assist Zuidoost in Amsterdam, Artoteek den Haag teachers in making optimum use of the and the Centrum voor Beeldende Kunst in articles and photos Dordrecht) came to Zimbabwe in January • Zimbabwean arti.sts have received travel 1998 to share their knowledge and expenses to attend regional workshops experience and to consider buying • Zimbabwean paintings have been used Zimbabwean artworks for their lending for overseas book covers collections. • readers in local public, community and rural libraries have free access to With support from Hivos the three information on local art artoteeken produced a catalogue with • contacts have been made with art introductory essays (including a historical institutions of many diverse types overview of art in Zimbabwe and throughout the world who now subscribe biographies of the participating artists) and to Gallery enabling information about launched their Zimbabwean collections Zimbabwean visual art to become more through public openings. accompanying An widespread lecture with slides was given at two of the • the Zimbabwe Association of Art Critics openings and public response was very has been established to assist in raising positive. For many it was a first view of art the level of awareness through the media from this country other than stone sculpture • articles and photos arc used to promote and for example at the Artoteek den Haag, local artists and to facilitate invitations to over half of the paintings were immediately exhibit and participate in workshops booked for borrowing. regionally and overseas. Dak'Art — the BJennale of Contemporary African Art — was held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 1998. Derek Muggins attended the event and gives us his impressions New forms for old Viye Diba, Materials, Rhythms and Compositions, 1997, 160 X 157cm, mixed media On the most western extremity of Africa, where the Atlantic Ocean influence is stronger, where palm and mango line the road and goats meets the chffs and the sand, is the city of Dakar. It is a centuries and Brahmen-like cattle wander, and on into the open. flat, dry old and modem west-coast port — an entrance and exit to and from landscape, here and there with acacia scrub and a forest of baobab an arid, undulating land of palm and acacia and baobab (the Sahara and at Jaol. a lagoon and sand shoreline and blue herons and ocean. is 400 kilometres and Bamako in Mali 1000 kilometres inland) — and the city climbs the low hills behind the harbour. The Dutch, the It was against this panorama that I found myself as a guest of the British and the French colonised successively and examples of their Ministry of Culture attending the Biennale of Contemporary African architecture are in evidence on the high ground where grandiose Art. arriving in the early hours on the day of the opening ceremony houses and the Presidential Palace and gracious hotels on the cliff — Friday, 24th April — and immediately plunged into a edge are fanned by the breeze from the sea. But this is north-west kaleidoscope of images and impressions in a five-day whirl of Africa where the influence of de.sert peoples is felt in the events, people and magic moments. The opening event at the predominantly white buildings with pink-orange roofs and the National Theatre, attended by the tall and distinguished President contrast is remarkable in the downtown suburb of Nyacherere with Diouf who some years ago. in the cultural example of the previous art, its confusion of street life and businesses and communal transport. A President Senghor, had called for the instigation of a biennale of busy but not over-congested harbour and city centre lend themselves was a colourful and impressive event. Departing into the light of to market places and street stalls where everything is offered — I did day we encountered a huge crowd of onlookers in the street as well not encounter a supermarket — and the over-riding impression for as the Presidential Guard who, in their high French-colonial white- the traveller is the beauty and elegance of the women who dress in breasted coats and trousers, red cloaks and curved sabres, were in the colourful "bubu' — the long caftan-like apparel, worn also by vivid contrast to the traditional masked dancers and musicians that many men in subdued colours, which tells of a long tradition with greeted us at Place du Soweto outside the Ifan Museum, the site of the textile and a strong culture in which the predominant religion is the major international exhibition of contemporary African art.