Looking at the front of this lovely abstract sculpture, the upright part represents the trunk of the tree and the side loops are its branches. The scooped-out hollows represent the people who live beside the tree and how it protects them.
Let’s hope that rising environmental awareness in Zimbabwe, and the rest of Africa, leads communities across the continent to value and protect their remaining trees. Deforestation on a massive scale has occurred, including by Chinese logging companies, and this needs to be resisted and reversed in the future. Munyaradzi’s message of the important relationships between trees and humans needs to be heeded.
A very elegant medium-sized sculpture by one of Zimbabwe’s best young abstract artists. Munyaradzi’s sculptures encapsulate the simplicity and grace of modern Zimbabwean sculpture.
Lepidolite is a mineral of the mica group, containing lithium. This stone comes from Bikita, one of just two sources in Zimbabwe. It’s an extremely hard type of stone, and is absolutely fine for outdoor display. All colouration and texture within the stone is entirely natural. The white area at the base is a quartz inclusion.
