Garden sculptures make export

12 Nov 2014 - by Liesl Venter

The elephant standing guard
at the entrance to the garden
is life size. One can’t help
but do a double take. Just to
make sure it’s not real. Not a single
detail - from the lines under the eyes
to the grinds in the large tusks – has
been left out.
It’s hard to imagine this
magnificent piece was once just a big
lump of rock.
There are hundreds of sculptures
at African Village Garden Sculptures
at the foot of Red
Hill Mountain
on the road to
Cape Point in the
Western Cape’s
Peninsula. The
stone effigies have
been made by
Zimbabwe’s Shona
artists, Malawians
and Zambians
hundreds of
kilometres away before being
imported into South Africa from
where they will be exported to
Germany, France, Norway, China
and the US.
“We send them all over the world,
but the Germans in particular like to
buy our pieces,” says Erick Ruvinga,
who runs the garden.
His father is one of 14 artists whose
work is displayed here. Ruvinga
himself is an artist but says he is still
learning the trade that he will one
day pass on to his son – even though
they now live in South Africa, far
from the quarry mines where the
rock is found and transformed into
works of art.
Ruvinga works from a makeshift
hut on the garden premises. The
reasons for manufacturing some of
the pieces locally are two-fold. “It
gives buyers some insight into how
the rock is transformed,” explains
Ruvinga. “They can literally watch a
block of rock turn into a sculpture –
be it on a small scale. It also keeps the
trade alive even when we are far from
where it originated. When we stop
sculpting, this art form will die out.”
Africa’s stone sculptures are
renowned for their artistry, history
and symbolism. It is a trade that is
passed down from one generation to
the next.
The sculptures are produced from
a variety of stones.
The Zimbabweans
favour serpentine
stone.
“It comes in
different colours
and levels of
hardness. One
can easily see
which sculptures
come from which
region – the dark
black pieces are all from Mvurwi
in Zimbabwe as are the light green
works. The dark green sculptures are
mostly from Malawi,” he explains.
The dark black he refers to is black
serpentine. It is easy to see why
carvers favour it as the final finish
is remarkable. “The sculptures are
polished to give them that gleam and
to make the natural colour of the
stone come alive,” says Ruvinga. “We
also use opal, cobalt, leopard rock,
springstone and soap stone. Each one
has a different texture and finish,
adding to the final look of the piece.”
From fine art to abstract, the
pieces vary in range as they do in size.
“The big pieces weigh anything from
450kg and up,” says Ravinga. “And
while they are made of stone they are
still very delicate and so have to be
transported with great care.”
Business has gradually been
moving south for some time.
“Tourism in Zimbabwe at one
point came to a near standstill and
so we had to find markets for our
works,” he says. “This garden is on
the Cape Point tourism trail and
so while it is a seasonal business
we are reaching far more people
than we would if we stayed in
Zimbabwe.”
The artists have had to become
experts at logistics. “We do the
importing into South Africa
all on our own – including the
transportation – to save costs. The
exporting from here is handled by
an agent. The mode of transport
that we use is dependent on the
buyer. While seafreight is cheaper
it does take much longer and the
risk of damage is higher.”
Ultimately it is art. Simply put it
cannot be repaired when damaged.
“Due to the size of the pieces very
little consolidation takes place. We
prefer to see one piece packaged
and packed into a container and
transported on its own. There is
less chance of something bumping
against it.”
According to Ruvinga, despite
the cost factor airfreight is
extremely popular. And it’s
understandable. These artworks
are not cheap. The starting price
for the big pieces is around
R100 000 per item.
“These are all one-off creations.
Not one piece is exactly the same as
the other,” says Ruvinga.