Nyakauru to represent Zim at Symposium in Korea

Genre : Society news
Principal country concerned : Column : Fine arts
Release/publication date : October 2014
Published on : 10/07/2014
Source : NewsDay newspaper

The following feature was originally published in NewsDay Zimbabwe.

Local sculptor Victor Nyakauru is set to represent Zimbabwe at the forthcoming International Sculpture Symposium taking place in Icheon, South Korea next month.

Tinashe Sibanda

Running from August 1 to 22, the Sculptural Symposium will bring together 20 sculptors, 10 Korean and 10 International sculptors who will use sculpture as their language and present art in dialectic terms.

It will be running under the theme Fascinating Figures and this will be the 17th edition of the Symposium.

Nyakauru recently participated in the National Gallery of Zimbabwe's Friends of the Gallery Art Auction with his work entitled Goodbye Wetlands which was a stone and metal sculpture.
The work is executed in his traditional media which is stone and steel.

The body is made out of stone while the limbs are made from steel. It is the figure of a frog walking off raising its front leg in a farewell wave. The other front leg is pulling a suitcase, which creates balance as the hind legs are placed outward from the body.

Nyakauru has stressed the point that as long as human development and exploitation continues it affects the small creatures first and then inflicts tragedy upon human beings later.

"I created the work in the form of the frog because from the way I see things, frogs are the most common creatures that identify the availability of water," he said.

He added that the sound of croaking often gave one a sign of whether it was about to rain or whether there was a body of water nearby.

"I felt the absence of that choral croaking would be catastrophic; that if I were to no longer hear croaking frogs then it would affect my lifestyle in some way. The frog was very symbolic as it signified my forthcoming trip to South Korea," said Nyakauru.

"I am the frog and the absence of green pastures and marshes affects the way I work."

The sculptor added that the visual art scene in Zimbabwe was currently strangled in relation to buyers as it was always best to travel the world promoting Zimbabwean Art and this effectively contributed to the commerce of the sector and attracts tourists.
At a recent exhibition in Harare, Nyakauru exhibited a work entitled Rare Mare which is a trophy-like horse's head made out of wood and leather.

He said the work was a representation of a scarce thoroughbred beast which was meant to be an object of beauty.
Nyakauru is also a Sculpture instructor at the National Gallery School of Visual Arts and Design where he underwent his training as an artist.

He has worked on various private collections as well as the National Gallery of Zimbabwe's Permanent Collection.

The Symposium in Korea will be a 22-day series of talks, workshops and studio classes that will create networking opportunities for sculptors from all over the world.

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

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