The Sunday Mail
IT is not every day that thousands of people converge to enjoy and buy art in Zimbabwe. Thus June 7, 2015 was a unique day for many who went to Wild Geese Lodge in Harare, including this writer.
In 2012, Wild Geese collaborated with renowned artiste Lesley Johnson to come up with an annual arts festival where visual artistes from all corners of the country would be able to showcase and sell their work.
Wild Geese itself would make for a good story, but let us for now focus on their festival, which marked its fourth anniversary last week.
Close to 140 visual artistes – which included painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and ceramic artistes, to mention a few – were at Wild Geese for the festival which this year was themed “Shadows”.
Thousands of arts enthusiasts and collectors came to see the works on show.
The magnitude of the spectacle could be witnessed even before one got into the venue with some people having to park their cars more than 500m from the main entrance there simply was no space.
To gain entry, people made donations to the two charities organisers chose to support this year, Friends of Hwange Trust and Hugugwe Children’s Home.
The venue was full of life with oil on canvas, pencil on paper, stonework, ceramics and photographs.
The artwork had varying themes including wildlife, landscapes, abstract, and African and Western scenery.
The creativity on display was indisputably brilliant, with upcoming and established artistes doing their thing side-by-side with those who take art as hobby. The festival attracted Zimbabwean artistes based in countries like South Africa and Zambia.
Lunch time had a segment called “Art Happening” in which 18 artistes were given prepared canvas squares and acrylic paint, and were tasked with completing a painting demonstration in 15 minutes flat.
The crowd that gathered around them voiced their appreciation for the paintings that emerged in such a short period of time and some were sold before they were even finished.
Vibrant band Evicted belted out renditions of both local and international songs to keep the crowds bopping.
The day ended with everyone – artistes and art-lovers – sitting on the green, drinks in hand and listening to music, while watching nature’s own art in the form of a scenic Zimbabwean sunset.
Event organiser Lesley Johnson said she was overwhelmed with the response.
“The purpose of this festival is to give artistes a platform to showcase, interact with the public and to meet other artistes.
“We do not charge the artistes for stands, but they have to pay 10 percent of their sales to Wild Geese a portion of which goes to two charities and the band which was playing,” said Johnson.
“We have great depth of creative talent in Zimbabwe, which a lot of people got to witness today with the exceptional standard of work that was on display.
“The range of work was from first time exhibitors to professionals who exhibit at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and galleries overseas.”
Selling art on the local market can be a daunting task as the majority of Zimbabweans are yet to grasp the culture of art collecting.
“I think resurrecting the tourism industry would benefit many artistes since we don’t have many locals who are buying art which makes it difficult to make a living from the trade,” said Johnson.
In all, 355 art pieces were sold on the day while many more were commissioned.
“I know that artistes will be calling to inform us that more paintings are being sold as a result of being seen at this festival so our figures in terms of sales are subject to change,” Johnson added.
Every year, five prizes sponsored by the German Embassy are presented.
This year, the prize for Best New Artiste went to Franklin Dzingai, Best on Show went to Lister Masterson, Best Sculptor to Manual Mutizwa and Most Unusual Work to Tafadzwa Marekera; while Bording Dzinotizei scooped Best Painting on the Theme.
The prizes, presented by Germany’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Ulrich Klockner, comprised gift vouchers for Winsor and Newton products, sculpting materials and five one-year subscriptions to Zim Artiste magazine.
