An 'exhibition of delights' is how Andrew Verster described Toys and Dolls, an exhibition held at the African Art Centre in October 1983. This was the first composite exhibition of the creative art form which was to become known as bead-cloth sculpture, and which gained recog­nition and momentum during the next eight years.

'From the language of beads to the language of vision' is my way of looking at the move away from traditional bead craft to the development of an art form. The making of bead ornamentation for wearing is an artistic form of expression, but one which is essentially functional and, therefore, could in conventional terms be described as craft.   

In bead-cloth sculpture, however, women have combined traditional bead craft skills with cloth and a variety of other materials in a way which has enabled them to illustrate, as a painter might, a vision of their lives and the things they see around them. They have be­gun to reflect on their lives, and express their reflections and observations. In universal terms this is surely a prerequisite of art.
Bead-cloth sculpture avoids the Western term 'folk art' and well describes the sculptures, whose basic materials include beads and cloth, including cotton waste for stuffing Many other innovative and ingenious materials are used.

Traditional doll from Msinga 1970s

A traditional pleated skin skirt may be made of corrugated cardboard painted black. Yellow and pink nylon is used to depict the skin and hair colour of white people and black cloth and twine or wool that of black people.

Injection bottles are used for baby bottles and covered match boxes for handbags. Wire is often used to form a frame work - for example for aeroplanes and buses - which is covered in cloth and beaded. Wood is also used for structural purposes. Trinkets, toys and baubles from trading stores add meaning to the tableaux and activity scenes.

Wedding Gifts by Sizakele Mchunu

The artists whose work was on the 1983 Toys and Dolls exhibition were Sizakele Mchunu, Zanele Shangase, Thembi Mchunu, Kulumelaphi MIaba and Dumeleni Ngubane. They were the original makers of the art form.

Thembi Mchunu. who had not ventured into what are described as tableaux, exhibited traditionally dressed dolls for which she was known already. Zanele Shangase showed Doll on a Couch, now in the Durban Art Gallery. Isangoma. The Wedding. Mother of Bride and Woman with Umbrella.

Sizakele Mchunu showed 16 of the 34 pieces. Her work included Man on a Chair. Woman with a Pot. Woman with Shopping Bag. Zionist. The Ploughman, The Hut and, probably the most origi­nal, Cupboard - a construction of wood covered with black felt, with hinged door. beaded fastening han­dles and contents made up of small items of scrap materials.

Dolls, as far as is known, were not part of the tradition in the Inanda Reserve, so this form of expression should be seen as new and contemporary, and it is the expression of only a few individuals.

Undoubtedly the financial reward from bead-cloth sculpture has played an important part in its development, as is usually the case with art forms. However, without the constantly changing ideas and enjoyment of the makers, the rewards would not have been possible.

It has also been said that without the intervention and encouragement of the African Art Centre and of the 'culture broker" - in this case myself - the development from functional to artistic and individualistic expression might not have been sustained.

Buying from the makers is quite a protracted undertaking, It took quite some time for them to realise that bigger was not necessarily more beautiful, and that the 'culture broker' might well pay more for an exquisite small piece than for a less beaded, larger one.

Fortunately there is a good demand for their products and it is not unusual for a family to take home between R1000 to R2 000 during a month. A fine collection of bead-cloth sculpture, which represents all the artists mentioned, can be seen in the Durban Art Gallery and in the South African Museum in Cape Town.

The artists involved in bead-cloth sculpture are no more than 12 women who, with the exception of two or three, belong to two families and all live in the Inanda Reserve area known as the Valley of a Thousand Hills.

Dolls by Thembi Mchunu. Typical
elongated doll, 1982 and first doll 1991.
African Art Centre

It was the two families who go by the name Mchunu, although they are unrelated and do not live near each other, who established what it now known as bead-cloth sculpture. For the sake of clarity I will refer to them as the Thembi Mchunu family and the Mchunu-Nojiyeza family.

Thembi Mchunu is in her late thirties and has never married. She lives with her daughter and extended family at Sithumba in Inanda. She is a diviner and a traditional healer whose earnings from medicine, independence and intelligence enabled her to lead her household in the production and sale of beadwork.

by Thembi Mchunu 1984: lion and monkey.
African Art Centre Collection.

She was the innovator of bead-cloth sculpture and, although she had visited the Art Centre when she was making and selling regular beadwork, it was her striking dolls in traditional clothes which caught my eye. Thembi Mchunu had observed that selling regular beadwork was difficult because of the amount being produced, and that unusual items were often sold at relatively high prices. She decided to think of something new to make, starting with an array of highly imaginative dolls.

While she continued to make the dolls, for which she became well known after her award at Things People Make, in 1984 she began bringing in a few beaded animals - horses with riders dressed as jockeys, a marvellous beaded lion, a monkey and a strange animal in a tree, which is now in the African Art Centre Collection.

The animals were received enthusiastically and she encouraged members of her family to make beaded birds and animals. The family group consists of her unmarried sister Katherine Mchunu, her two married sisters, Jabu Sibisi and Thokozile Gwala, her sister-in-law Thulani Mchunu and, until she died in 1991, her mother Ma-Bhengu.

Celani NoJIyeza (left) and Sizakele Mchunu
(right) with their children

Other members of the Thembi Mchunu family involved in bead-cloth art are Khulumelaphi, a sister married into the MIaba family, and her sister-in-law, HIalaleni MIaba. They live in Nyuswa in Inanda. Their output is smaller than the Thembi Mchunu family's, and different. A speciality of the MIaba family has been Khulumelaphi MIaba's winged birds and HIalaleni MIaba's bird like aeroplanes and fan tailed peacocks.

The Mchunu-Nojiyeza family live across the river from the Thembi Mchunu family. Celani Nojiyeza and Sizakele (born Mchunu) Nojiyeza were co-wives.

Sizakele Mchunu came to the Art Centre before her marriage into the Nojiyeza family, and retained the maiden name by which she became known for outstanding creativity. She was a shy and quiet woman whom we came to know and love, both for her personality and creative spirit.

White Mother and Baby (left) by Mavis
Mchunu 1984, African Art Centre
Collection Black. Mother and Baby
(right) by Celani Nojiyeza 1995, African
Art Centra Collection

She was the innovator of 'tableaux' - or activity sculptures - and is probably the most imaginative of all these artists. Two of her most famous sculptures, Birth on a HospitalBed and Baby in a Coffin,'afe in the South African Museum in Cape Town, and Singer Sewing Machine is in the African Art Centre Collection.

Sizakele Mchunu was born in about 1959 and - for lack of medical attention-died at home giving birth to twins in 1989. One of the twins also died.

Many of her creations portrayed the joys of motherhood: Birth on a Hospital Bed indicated, I think, the pride and pleasure of her experience giving birth. The death of Sizakele Mchunu was a great sorrow to all of us at the African Art Centre.

Professor Eleanor Preston-Whyte commented that Sizakele Mchunu's death highlighted the deprivation in the lives of the Inanda beadworkers and bead-cloth sculptors:

"Even though they have been able to make some money from their art, they cannot easily escape the harsh realities of an unjust and racially divided society. Nor it is possible to escape the fact that while the beadworkers are black and poor, most of their customers are white and relatively affluent. enjoying immediate access to medical facilities."

Crucifixion by Sizakele Mchunu 1988
African Art Centre Collection

Birth on a Hospital Bed by Sizakele
Mchunu 1988. South African Museum,
Cape Town

An extension of Sizakele Mchunu's family are her sisters, Thandi and Mavis Mchunu, with whom she lived until her marriage into the Nojiyeza family. Mavis and Thandi attended school as far as Standard Three and Standard Five. Sizakele, like her mother who came from a traditional family, did not attend a Christian church or school.

When visiting the Art Centre Sizakele Mchunu always wore traditional clothes. Mavis and Thandi Mchunu, on the other hand, are slim and neatly dressed in skirts and blouses and often high heeled shoes.

There is no doubt that the two sisters were inspired and tutored by Sizakele Mchunu. In return, perhaps through sewing lessons at school, they passed sewing skills on
to her.

Radio by Sizakele Mchunu 1987.African Art
Centre Collection

Mavis Mchunu became known for her depiction of sporting events, including The Canoe Race. The Football Match and The Tennis Match. Thandi Mchunu has a liking for trinkets and combines them with beautifully beaded dolls in traditional dress, sometimes further ornamented with bits of jewellery.

Recent pieces show a little boy playing with a china dog, a toy trumpet, and a woman in traditional clothes placing a bunch of pink artificial flowers in a plastic bucket. Her Wedding Table, set out with a doll's plastic teaset and beaded tea shower with beaded guests sitting round the table, was a special piece.

Gabi-Gabi Nzama is an extension of the Nojiyeza family, and married into the Nzama family who live close by. Her imaginative expression in the bead-cloth genre is in flying machines, for which she has justifiably become renowned. Helicopters (Umehlokuholomeni) - 'the eyes of the government' - fly regularly over the Valley of a Thousand Hills, often looking for dagga, as do aeroplanes to and from Durban International Airport, and sometimes hang gliders.

The construction of the machines is of wire, over which cloth is stretched and then heavily beaded. The pilots, sometimes white and sometimes black, lean jauntily through the window. As with the other bead-cloth artists, Nzama's work is totally original.

In no way related to either the Thembi Mchunu or the Mchunu-Nojiyeza families is Khulumelaphi Hlambisa, known as MaHlambisa. She is a large and impressive woman, matched only by the large and impressive dolls she makes. Her human figures often stand half a metre high and are proportionally large in other directions.

Twins by Sizakele Mchunu 1988African Art
Centre Collection

The construction and engineering of her pieces are quite remarkable. They resemble her own commanding figure and could be seen as self portraits. She has a wry sense of humour and one of my favourites is her Spot Dog, a large rather lugubrious dog with 'Spot' embroidered on his back. 'Spot' was sexless but a more recent dog she brought in had the appendages necessary for breeding and brought forth uproarious laughter from the other bead artists.

Sizakele Mchunu 1986

A piece kept in the African Art Centre Collection is titled Visit to the Clinic. On a cloth covered wooden platform is a nurse, obviously white, holding a baby and the mother in traditional dress carrying a nappy bag made of a cloth and beaded matchbox. The sculpture also has a time element to it. When I asked MaHlambisa what the empty box at the opposite end of the platform was she replied: That was where she was sitting'.

The 1983 bead-cloth exhibition was followed by another at the Art Centre in October 1985, and showed that the new creative expression by rural artists had burgeoned in production and originality. The listing of 42 items andpreview in the catalogue paint a picture of bead-cloth sculpture and artists at the time:

"This exhibition has been collected over the last two or three months and shows a growing reflection of the artists on the things round about them, both rural and urban...

"Thesubject matter grows weekly (the colour of the people is no longer always black - some are very pink) and there is always a feeling of excitement for us in the Art Centre when the makers arrive and slowly unpack their shopping bags, and the artists themselves are very responsive to our enthusiasm.

"Apart from their apparent satisfaction in their creative achievements, they are taking home relatively substantial financial reward. This is due to both local and overseas interest in their creations."

The Football match by Mavis mchunu 1985

Canoeist by Mavis Mchunu 1984

So captivating were some of the pieces that I could not help indulging myself by interpreting and titling them. For example, one exhibit was a replica of a fully sprung queen size bed with a woman apparently asleep which I titled Excuse Me just Leave Me Alone. This was an attempt at interpretation of Uxolo Ngiyeke, which Sizakele Mchunu had given as a description of the piece.

The artists who make birds and animals each have their own style of bead decoration and preference for the type of bird or animal, each one an original and seldom repeated. The inner construction is of kapoc wool tightly covered with fabric and then heavily beaded.

The Tennis match by Mavis Mchunu 1984

Some make oxen, sheep, buck, imaginary ostriches, monkeys, tortoises, snakes, scorpions and other insects. The birds vary from small grass birds to turkey buzzards and other fantastic colourful birds of an unknown - probably non-existent - species. Birds are sometimes put in a tree, and sometimes in a nest.

Preston-Whyte sums up what the new art form meant to its creators:

"It is not only the political situation that separates these women from their white clientele. They come from rural communities that have for decades been relegated to the periphery of national life. For this reason the journey to Durban is far more than a mere marketing trip: it is also a path to a new world of experience and personal expression.

Doll by Kulumelaphi Hlambisa 1995.
African Art Centre

"While {or some women the most important result of beadwork production for the Centre has been a mitigation of the poverty they and their families experienced, for others the discovery of their own talent for making objects that are valued in the out­side world has been equally important."

Helicopter by Gabi-Gabi Nzama 1987

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Training workshops

In an effort to provide some informal training for artists known to it, the Art Centre initiated Saturday morning art classes at the Ecumenical Trust Centre in St George's Street. They were made possible by a grant of R4 000 from the Durban Arts Festival 1983. Rent and materials were met with the grant, and the teachers were volunteers - mainly from the Natal Technikon, some of whom later established the Com­munity Arts Workshop.

Though the project did not last long, there is no doubt that several young people benefited from the opportu­nities offered. One artist who stands out is Sfiso Mkame.

Another is Alois Cele, who went on to run a project funded by the Art Centre offering Saturday morning art classes in Umlazi.
A weekend course was conducted in July 1964 by Richard Leftwich, a fine arts graduate from the University of Natal who was working in London. He demon­strated a method of low technology production of posters and images using the minimum of materials, with the specific intention of showing that no special training in graphics or print production was required.

In the light of the undoubted need for informal art training and the failure of the Ecumenical Centre project to fill this need on a long term basis, the establishment of the Community Arts Workshop in 1984 was particularly welcome, funded by Durban Arts Association it was established in one of the spacious old station workshops.

Andries Botha, senior lecturer in sculpture at the Natal Technikon, was a prime mover in the project, helped by other lecturers from the Technikon. Apart from regular drawing and painting classes which young people were able to attend, space was available for artists to work on their own.

Unfortunately, the Community Arts Workshop was also forced to close when the Durban City Council needed the property for development. Finding suitable premises at a reasonable rent has always been a major stumbling block in attempts to set up informal art projects. Although the Workshop was relatively short lived, a number of artists were given the basic training they needed to develop as artists. A few who came to the notice of the African Art Centre were Joseph Manana, Naphtal Mhlongo, Moses Buthelezi, and Nkosinathi Ntshalintshali.