adminart at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.”
What repercussions would such a headline have for our image, our country and our beloved National Gallery, let alone tourism, culture and other related entities. We do not want to imagine it.
So when unqualified schlemiels (“amongst other things”) like Steven Garan’anga advocates to over one million readers of The Herald our main national Press – at the Galleries “Zimbabwe’s other Sculptural Forms” Monday 4th July, 2011″ . . . to ferret and scavenge in the dumps for corroded and putrid pieces of scrap metal and archeological knowledge in dumpsites.”
Is he aware of the health hazards he is imposing on artists, corporate art investors, diplomats, patrons and philanthropists, let alone schoolchildren who would most likely touch the art? When Garan’anga says, “. . . the use of whatever materials are readily available for art …”
Is a dangerous presumption for his erroneously classified “. . . connective artists and jangling harmony …”
Creating scrap-metal art can be dangerous, especially when practised without the complete knowledge of the medium or the process of welding.
Even in the hands of a genius, dirty-feculent pieces of scrap-metal welded together, irrespective of scale, weight, balance or fragile joinery, can be potentially harmful to both, artist and consumer.
Dangerous public art
Recently, I witnessed a public metal sculpture at Construction House, along Leopold Takawira Street, being haphazardly refurbished without reinforced scaffolding.
I was horrified! Should that sculpture have fallen onto the streets, many innocent passers-by, shoppers, vehicles and premises could have been injured or damaged.
I shuddered at the thought and briskly walked in the opposite direction.
Metal madness and related deaths
Unbalanced art objects with projections of plastic, glass, metal and scrap iron with dents and sharp edges are potentially dangerous to both producers and public consumers of art. The following recorded accidents will shed some light:
- In 2002, a seven-year-old Mbare schoolgirl, identified only as “Charity”, walked into the metal spikes of a scarp-iron metal “Peacock”, measuring 89cm (just her eye level) at a well-known workshop school. She lost her sight in the right eye.
- In 1998, Lameck Gunduza (32) of Highfield, a scrap-metal sculptor, cut his toe on a rusty piece of scrap iron and contracted tetanus. He died two months later, after experiencing severe convulsions which where were earlier mistaken for “ancestral spirit possession”.
Indeed, the sad reality of the soap opera like disasters in the visual arts could for the most part, be avoided and prevented.
Yes, art can be dangerous. A thing of beauty, elegance, emotion, skill and intellect becomes a lethal object when created by untrained artists, curated and displayed by undiscerning curators and gallery owners, whose only motive is profit and fame.
What is required is the appropriate training on health and safety practices relevant to the visual arts.
- Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Arts Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) of Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a practising artist, critic, designer and a Corporate Image Consultant.
Online Reporter