SYLVESTER MUBAYI

Sylvester Mubayi was born in 1942 in the Chiota District, east of Harare. He left school at the age of 16, but it was 11 years later that his live changed direction when he met Tom Bloomefield, who offered him the chance to try his hand at sculpture at Tengenenge.

After a brief stay at Tengenenge, Mubayi left for Harare where he sought the help of Frank McEwen and worked for a while at the Workshop School. McEwen subsequently wrote of Mubayi, “He carves with consummate skill, knowledge and an innate feeling for stone.”

Mubayi believes in a world of spirits, of supernatural forces. He feels that spirits communicate with us either in an invisible way, as in dreams, or temporarily via living mediums. Mubayi’s spiritual reality is often expressed as metamorphosis, by fusing human and animal forms. Such transitional states form a great part of traditional Shona belief; a man temporarily changes into an animal or an animal is possessed by a spirit.

Characteristics of Mubayi’s style are rounded, self-contained silhouettes and highly polished surfaces. His faces usually have an innocent, simple expression. Within the concave area between the eyebrows and the protruding full lips are set almond-shaped eyes and the nose. Large ears and a big, hemispherical forehead complete the face. He sometimes use holes to open up the shape of the stone without weakening the flowing rhythm of his sculptures.