Dialogues of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture
Lance Larkin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
llarkin2@uiuc.edu
If the African diaspora is a movement
of people and a melding of cultural traditions, diasporas are encouraged
to move by stories of those who have been there. Often merchants or
tourists with disposable income provide such stories of other places.
The international market in Zimbabwean stone sculpture provides a steady
flow of goods that tell multiple stories within their forms. The Western
tourists who buy sculpture in Zimbabwe tell stories of their homes
while in Africa and they also take stories of Africa back home. For
their part, Zimbabwean artists travel overseas to workshops and gallery
openings, bringing back stories of distant places.
As this suggests, the flow of information in this global art scene
is not one-way. The artwork is a referent for what the artists say
about their country. When asked about their work, the artists often
provide detailed information about their cultural traditions, indicating
knowledge of, and a need to dispel, overseas notions of “darkest
Africa.” Yet the sculpture is transformed and takes on different
meanings as it moves through the international market. Using Arjun
Appadurai's 'social life of things' model as a framework provides a
rich perspective allowing us to examine the stories told by various
actors (artists, tourists, gallery owners, etc.). This, in turn, highlights
the tension between a market-imposed polarity of “tourist” and “fine” art.
Despite contradiction within the discourse, Zimbabwean sculptors use
the international art market as a means to engage questions of the
Other.
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