HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Gift Rusere, 25, is a sculptor who sells his pieces at Newlands Street Market in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.
Newlands Street Market is a strip of land on a main road in Harare where rows of stone sculptures stand waiting to be purchased. There is no parking for the customers and no shelter from the elements. Many locals drive by with no more than a glance. Meanwhile, under the blazing sun or afternoon thunderstorms, Rusere and the other vendors wait for the rare tourist or African curio fan to stop by.
Rusere says that sculpture sales have improved during the last three years after a decade-long economic meltdown and the destruction of street markets by the government in 2005. Still, he says he struggles to make a living out of his art.
“This business is more of a struggle,” Rusere says. “I use fruit serpentine stone, which comes from Guruve, 180 kilometers away from Harare. It is a mission sourcing it. Yet at the end of the day, I must sell it for U.S. $75 – sometimes U.S. $50 if I am desperate.”
Rusere’s collection of abstract artwork perches on upside-down wooden crates, almost hidden among the cheap copies of hippo, elephant and lion sculptures that flood the market. To find a unique piece, Rusere says buyers have to thoroughly search the makeshift stalls.
Still, Rusere says he can sell his art faster here than he could in a gallery.
“Customers come to the markets more than to the galleries,” Rusere says. “If I sold a piece through the gallery, then it would sit there for months before anyone bought it. Here I know it will be bought in a matter of weeks.”
Rusere, who learned to sculpt at a young age, had his first exhibition as a teenager when he was selected to feature his work at the Harare International Festival of the Arts, HIFA.
“In 1999, I had my first exhibition at HIFA,” he says. “Sculpting is my passion. It’s not just about the money.”
But then in 2005, a government shutdown of local markets compounded a financial crisis that had begun at the start of the decade. Rusere says he had to put his passion on hold.
“I used to sell my art at Africa Unity Square by Meikles Hotel,” he says. “But it was demolished in 2005, and I had to stop art for a couple of years.”
After the economic crisis and government shutdown of local markets during the past decade, the stone sculpture industry has begun to recover in Zimbabwe. Its recovery has also resurrected the decades-old debate about true art versus cheap imitations and street markets versus galleries.
Zimbabwe has a long history of stone sculptures. Many consider Frank McEwen, the first director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, to be the founder of the Shona sculpture art movement in the late 1960s. The movement receives its name from the Shona, the largest people group in Zimbabwe, because of the prevalence of sculpture in Shona culture. Through his contacts in the international art world, McEwen was able to give the movement its first international exposure, with collectors eventually including names such as Prince Charles and Michael Jackson.
But both the formal and informal markets suffered during a decade-long economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, when the economy declined more than 45 percent between 1999 and 2008, according to the World Bank. Street markets received another blow in 2005 when government officials demolished many of them during Operation Restore Order or Operation Murambatsvina. According to the government, the operation aimed to curb illegal housing and commercial activities. But a U.N. report called it “disastrous” for destroying the homes, livelihoods or both of 700,000 people and indirectly affecting an additional 2.4 million people.
Akim Nyakudya, from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s Department of Education, says that the gallery was nearly empty, and the street markets were nonexistent from 2005 to late 2008.
“The economic meltdown was a cause for concern,” he says. “There was very little tourist traffic right across from the street markets to the galleries.”
Maria Musikiwa, who sells curios at Newlands Street Market, says that the government demolishment of local markets forced her to withdraw from the business temporarily.
“2005 was the worst year,” she says. “This market was destroyed, and I had to stop my business.”
But in recent years, there has been a revival of the once-vibrant industry with the slow recovery of the economy and end of the government operation. But many say the sculpture sector has yet to reach its full potential.
Misheck Chidhumo, who is a caretaker at Chapungu Sculpture Park, a reputable gallery, says business is slowly improving.
“Business has improved in the last year, especially in comparison to 2005, when it was virtually nonexistent,” Chidhumo says. “It is still slow, though.”
Nyakudya echoes his sentiment.
“Business has improved slightly in the last two years,” he says. “However, the peak of the sales of Shona sculptures was the early ’80s to the ’90s. We are nowhere near those levels. There has been some improvement, but we are not out of the woods yet.”
The same applies to the street markets.
“Now the market is allowed to exist, and I am back,” Musikiwa says. “It’s hard though, and business is still not up to standards.”
Rusere agrees.
“Sometimes business is good, but it’s still low,” Rusere says. “I think tourists are still afraid to come to Zimbabwe.
He says this is because of political violence.
“Most of the tourists these days are Chinese, and they want faces, animals, typical curios,” he says. “But they drive hard bargains and don’t give fair prices.”
Chidhumo says the gallery also draws many tourists from this region.
“We get mostly tourists here, especially ones from Asia,” he says.
For Musikiwa, it’s a combination.
“I would say that it’s 50-50,” she says. “Half are tourists, and half are locals who are buying presents.”
Musikiwa serves a customer, Val Thompson, a local housewife.
“I am here buying presents for my friends overseas,” Thompson says. “Last year, I bought a bigger piece for my garden.”
Nyakudya says that the National Gallery’s customers are mostly tourists, wealthy people mainly from foreign countries and embassies.
“We also do loans of artwork to institutions within the country,” he says.
If the relative peace of Zimbabwe continues, many say so will the increase of tourists, who may be interested in purchasing mementos or art.
In addition to an increase in customers, Chidhumo says that there has also been an increase of youth in the sculpture industry.
“You see a lot of the youth turning to sculpting as a career choice,” he says.
Chidhumo says that youths discover their talents and then realize they can make it into a career.
“People get involved in this industry in response to the call of art and the passion it evokes,” he says. “Many artists then find that they can make money from their art, and this inspires them to do it for a living.”
This year, Zimbabwean artists are exhibiting at the prestigious Venice Biennale, a contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years in Italy. Some say that this is an indication that Zimbabwean artists still stand among the most talented in the world.
The recovery of the sculpture industry has also revived the debate about what qualifies as art and who qualifies as artists.
McEwen coined the phrase “airport art” for sculptures that are mass produced by an assembly line of carvers, effectively rendering these pieces as curios of little value. More than 50 years later, Zimbabwe finds itself immersed in equal parts of Shona sculptures and airport art.
Many say that the street markets merely peddle airport art, trinkets and curios that bring the Shona sculpture name down. But others say that there is room for both to coexist, with cheap souvenirs for backpackers to take home and the serious art collector able to discriminate between the two.
Nyakudya says originality is crucial.
“The street markets have many amateur artists selling their pieces,” he says. “They are artists in a sense, but they lack originality. Such pieces we call airport art, and we do not recognize them as true Shona sculptures.”
Nyakudya says vendors at street markets also aren’t always honest.
“You will find people on the street claiming to have a Joram Mariga, when in fact they don’t,” he says, referring to a sculptor from the early 1960s who is widely regarded as the father of the stone sculpture movement. “Another problem with street markets is authenticity is doubtful. Someone claiming to be the artist might in fact just be a collector who has gone across the country buying up copied pieces to sell.”
Chidhumo says that, unlike galleries, street markets are filled with low-quality and unoriginal copies.
“Chapungu Park focuses on the heritage of Shona sculpture,” he says. “Airport art brings down its reputation.”
Musikiwa sells airport art at Newlands Street Market.
Rusere prefers to use different terms, instead discerning between art and craft.
“All my art is original,” he says. “Some of the pieces sold in the street market is what I call craft. If someone sees a sculpture of an elephant and copies it a hundred times to sell, then that is craft. If someone creates something using their imagination and their own ideas, then that is art.”
Sally Wong, who goes to the street markets to buy goods for her shop in China, says there’s demand for both.
“I see buying art here as a viable thing to do,” she says. “I don’t just buy stone though. I buy all kinds of curio because it’s cheap.”
Nyakudya says it is possible to discern quality at the street markets.
“If the seller is the artist, then he can tell you the meaning behind his piece, and it adds to the authenticity of the piece as a work of art,” he says.
But he says that buying art from a gallery guarantees quality.
“Getting a piece from the gallery means it has been evaluated, and that it is reputable,” he says.
Chidhumo says that many street market vendors have no qualms about using inferior materials.
“The stone used here at Chapungu is of quality springstone, serpentine, verdite and lepidolite,” he says. “The markets on the streets often sell soapstone sculptures, a type of stone that is very soft and breaks easily.”
Then there are those who believe that art is in the eye rather than the pocket of the beholder. Martin Wilson, who is from the United Kingdom, regularly does business in Zimbabwe. He is a fan of the sculptures in Zimbabwe.
“I don’t care about the quality or who the artist is,” he says. “If I like it, I buy it.”
Sitting in the dusty street market, Rusere says he also believes in a more expansive definition of art.
“I think art is life, and life is art, so really everyone is an artist,” he says. “To me art is about creativity. My piece that I am polishing now I have called ‘The Essence of Love,’ and it speaks a universal language that anyone can understand.”
