Henry Mshololo is a carver who arrived at the Art Centre in the mid-1980s with a sculptured violin and bow. He proved to be one of the Centre's most imaginative artists. Many of his pieces derived from dreams so complex I have been unable to interpret them.

One remarkable work was a two sided carving. On one side was depicted the area in which he lives, showing rivers and, incised in writing, the name of the school his children attended. On the other side is a depiction of the 1987 flood and resulting chaos. The sculpture remained in the Art Centre for a long time and was eventually bought by a Belgian artist who recognised the work's imaginative qualities.

Other than the contemporary sculptured violins made by Henry Mshololo, musical instruments have not featured among the art and craft available at the Art Centre. although at one time we were able to obtain stringed instruments - the isigubhu and the imvingo. With the exception of drums, there is little evidence of traditional musical instruments being made in KwaZulu-Natal on the scale experienced in other African countries.

The Centre was asked by the South African National Gallery to contribute work to an exhibition of Tin Can and Wire Sculptures, held in Cape Town in July 1986, comprising sculpture from around South Africa.

A review of the exhibition in the Cape Times of April 25, 1986, by Benita Munitz, raised the exact questions that the tin can and wire sculpture, and other contemporary art forms, had led the Art Centre to consider during the early 1980s. She wrote:

"That the urge to create manages to overcome financial, social and cultural limitations, is well demonstrated in this fascinating show. On display are objects made from scrap materials, including wire, tin cans, bottle tops, foil and fur, fabric and feathers."

Her remarks are applicable to a number of artists who come to the Art Centre, especially the bead-cloth artists. Perhaps it is lack of conventional materials which brings about such innovation and creativeness.

An exhibition of Small Sculptures was held in September 1986 at the African Art Centre. Exhibitors were Bheki Myeni, Zamokwakhe Gumede, Julius Mfete and Shorty from the Gacuba Development Project in Port St Johns. From the project were meticulously carved country scenes: Plough­man with Qrain Distributor, Milking Qroup, Ploughman with Plough, and Four Oxen. With Driver and Sleigh.
The only names of the artists given by the Gacuba Project were Julius and Shorty. It is not known what happened to Shorty, but Julius Mfete's carvings have since been recognised and bought by public galleries.

Bheki Myeni showed a wide range of subject matter in his 24 pieces, including some new ideas - Pawpaw Tree, Banana Tree, Qrape Vine, A Crocodile Catching a Came-leon, Crayfish, Monkeys in a Tree, and Bat in Tree.

Zamokwakhe Gumede's sculpture, on the other hand, was concerned with the human factor: Isangoma, Mother and Father and Sick Child (a remarkably telling narrative) and Preacher. Devil and Carpenter. Included in the exhibition were five small carvings by Edmund Mseleku, a friend of Gumede's and obviously influenced by him in style. A late entry for the exhibition was the first TV Horse and Rider by Mziwakhe Mbatha. A large number of pieces on the exhibition were sold, including TV Horse and Rider and seven other pieces bought by John Bass from Australia.

Following this exhibition by artists with little or no formal training was an exhibition of paintings and graphics by Paul Sibisi, Smart Gumede and Sipho Mdanda, all of whom had completed formal art courses. Sipho Mdanda had by then graduated from the University of Fort Hare with a Fine Arts degree.

Smart Gumede, after his initial art training at Ndaleni and several years of teaching, had completed two years of his Fine Arts course at Fort Hare. Paul Sibisi, also following training at Ndaleni and several years of teaching, had completed a course at the Rorke's Drift Art School and had just returned from the United States where, with other artists from Africa, he had been a participant in the 'Operation Crossroads - Africa Programme'.

Gumede showed five oil paintings, two of which were sold - The Fortune Seekers to the Durban Art Gallery and Weekend Festivities to the Killie Campbell Museum. Paul Sibisi had four washaways, two linocuts and a woodcut, and Sipho Mdanda had etchings, lithographs and a linocut.

In April 1987 an exhibition of Decorated Textiles and Weavings was arranged in the University of Natal's Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre gallery during the annual Film Festival. The exhibition showed the well known beaded marriage aprons of the Ndebele women along with beaded cloth apparel worn traditionally by Zulu women.

From the Xihoko Project at Radoo village in Gazankulu were beautifully embroidered bedspreads and pillow cases. This embroidery is derived from the traditionally embroidered mchekas (sarongs) worn by Shangaan women. The Xihoko Project was initiated byjane Arthur, who was doing research in the area and was so impressed by the embroidered mchekas that she felt that the tradi­tional skills could be used for the financial benefit of the women. Xihoko has gone on to expand and develop into a successful home industry.

The use of grass as a textile was demonstrated by bright wool decorated reed sleeping mats and pictorial tapes­tries derived from the isithebe (eating mat). Several fine Rorke's Drift tapestries were featured, as were some from the Ndonyane Weaving Centre in the Highflats area. The exhibition illustrated tradition, and derivation from tradition, without the sometimes unfortunate development of'ethnic' art.

The Southern Africa Museums Conference was held in Pietermaritzburg in. 1987. I attended as an observer. There were several papers of particular relevance to the Art Centre, under the main heading of 'African Arts and Museum Attitudes'. One was 'Ways of Seeing Art', by Patricia Davidson of the South African Museum. My experience at the African Art Centre led me to empathise with several comments by Davidson, including that:

"The international African art market is primarily concerned with the 'classic' pieces that will be sought after by major museums and collectors. But there is another realm of creative expression which is dynamic, vital, immediate and responding to local conditions.

"The increase of a popular Africanism, of which Paul Simon's hit record Qracelands is an obvious example, must be viewed in the political context of Southern Africa. It seems that in the changing socio-political context of South Africa, part of the white population is responding culturally to the demographic reality of a black majority and to the powerful force of black African culture.

"Be it out of fear or enlightenment there is a move to embrace African culture at many different levels. This appropriation of African cultural artefacts and the incorporation of African elements in white South African culture can be seen as a way of coming to terms with the unknown, of taming the unfamiliar. The rush of interest in contemporary African arts can be seen in this context.

"It has been suggested with a degree of cynicism that the recent fashionability of 'transitional' African art has more to do with white anxiety than anything else (Powell in the Weekly Mail. January 9, 1987). But the phenomenon remains and it seems that by absorbing elements of African mate­rial culture white South Africans are saying 'we too are African'. It is an attempt to find common ground and a place in a future integrated culture, which is in the process of being forged."

Petros Hadebe

Petros Hadebe was an artist who had attended Saturday afternoon painting classes in Newcastle when he lived there. The first water colours he brought to the Art Centre were often quite lyrical country landscapes, but the harsh realities of living in the Inanda shack area - often unemployed - saw a change in his subject matter.

A telling painting titled Inkatha Fight ANC snowed the frustration and bitterness which developed in a mixture of a gentle and bitter man. Ironically, the painting about conflict caused conflict between Hadebe and the Art Centre.

At the request of the Development Bank Ladies Club a selection of work was sent up to Pretoria for their annual art exhibition. Among the works was Inkatha Fight ANC. One day Hadebe called to say someone in the ANC was Interested in buying the painting. It was explained that the work was being exhibited in Pretoria, and we agreed to get it back as soon as possible.

He called several days later and was extremely angry to find the painting had not arrived back. He pointed out that we had sent it without his permission, which was correct. However, as with many artists Hadebe's visits to the Art Centre were intermittent - he worked as a builder from time to time - and we often had to deal with this problem when opportunities to exhibit and lack of communication with artists outweighed procedural correctness.

During a subsequent visit Hadebe, normally a gentle and sensitive man, was enormously angry. He refused to move from the Centre, and reluctantly we had to call the police. Fortunately they arrived after he had decided to leave. The next day he arrived back and apologised. The painting was not sold to the ANC, but it was a straw onto which he had hung his frustrated rights. Sadly, Hadebe died suddenly a few years later, aged 35.

At this point in the conference the term 'transitional' art died and was buried, it being rather obviously pointed out that art was always in a state of transition.

An exhibition Rorke's Drift Fine Arts School in Retrospect was, at the same time, on view at the Tatham Gallery. Work by graduates of the Art School were loaned by the University of Zululand, the Campbell Collection and private collectors, and also on view were ceramics and weavings from the Eastern Cape Art and Craft Centre.

Another exhibition on during the conference was African Art Alternative Aspects. The outstanding exhibition of African art and artefacts, selected by the Tatham Art Gallery from a variety of private and public collections. was held in the Old Supreme Court, which later became the premises of the Tatham Art Gallery. It was clearly the first foot in the door for the dynamic director, Lorna Ferguson.

Prompted by a book titled Funa - Food From Africa by Renata Coetzee, an Exhibition of Crafts illustrating their functional uses in Zulu traditional homes was held at the Art Centre. Several of the household items beautifully illustrated in the book had been borrowed from the Art Centre. Among the grass woven items exhibited were Izimkhamba (beer pots) Amavovo (woven beer strainers), Izikhetho (beer skimmers), Izithebe (eating mats), Izichumo (beer baskets) and Izimbenge (for serving food or as a lid for clay beer pots).

In contrast was the use of telephone wire and plastic versions of some articles made by urban dwellers no longer able to get natural materials. Traditional coiled clay pots from several areas and burnt wood decorated wooden utility items such as spoons, meat platters and milking pails illustrated the embellishments used to transform pure utility objects into beautiful ones.

Another request for the Art Centre to mount an exhibition came from Uthongathi, a non-racial private school near Tongaat on the North Coast. The exhibition was held in July 1987, at the opening of the school's new library, and consisted of 83 pieces of art and craft.

Among the artists who participated was Andries Botha, whose enormous sculptural assemblage made in grass and other natural materials, was exhibited in the down­stairs foyer. The sculptures combined his conceptual ideas with the traditional skills used in Zulu hut building.

The beautiful upstairs gallery was ideally suited for an exhibition of work by students from the University of Durban-Westville, sculptors Vuminkosi Zulu, Mziwakhe Mbatha and Zamokwakhe Gumede, and Natal Technikon Fine Arts School lecturers Virginia MacKenny, John Roome and Dennis Purvis.

Vukani baskets, Rorke's Drift tapestries and bead-cloth sculptures combined to make it a representative exhibition in keeping with the principles of Uthongathi school.

In April 1987 the South African National Gallery asked the Art Centre to contribute work to the Wood Exhibition in Cape Town, and one piece each was sent from Philemon Sangweni, Enoch Mabika, Vuminkosi Zulu, Mziwakhe Mbatha, Zamokwakhe Gumede. Bheki Myeni and Smart Gumede. This gave KwaZulu-Natal artists the opportunity to reach a wider public.

An exhibition titled Social Comments and Reflections was held at the African Art Centre in June 1988. It was prompted by an earlier exhibition at the Natal Society of Arts (NSA) Gallery at which three Johannesburg artists had shown modern versions of the Hogarth Suite, transposing Hogarth's comments on 18th Century morals and manners into modern day idiom.

The artists' comments in the exhibition at the Art Centre are well illustrated in the titles of some of the works: Petros Hadebe's water colour Newtown, Mjondolo (Shacks). Zukile Kebe's pencil drawing Abajitha (Gamblers) and oil painting Tradesmen's Entrance.

Moses Buthelezi's oil paintings Qoing Back to My Roots and Street Children, Zazi Nkosi's pen and wash Homeless I and II, Hostel Showers and Mourners, Sfiso Mkame's oil pastel Homage to the Miners, Zamokwakhe Gumede's wood sculptures Pi ckpocket and TheBossand theWorkers, and Sizakele Mchunu's bead-cloth sculptures BossV/ak-ing DrunkWorkers and Baby in a Coffin. George Msimang had six untitled pen and ink drawings on the exhibition, which spoke for themselves. Carol Brown commented:

"Although both exhibitions draw from the same time and place, there are many differences and these in themselves are perhaps more revealing than the works. The three well known artists who showed at the NSA exhibited slick, professionally executed and erudite comments on society. They were mainly cynical but with the clever sort of cynicism which comes from the benefit of higher education and exposure to art works, literature etc.

"The artists exhibiting at the Art Centre are not nearly as skilled and use much poorer quality materials. They are more direct in the depiction of the life around them. They leave the viewer to draw his/her own conclusions...The exhibitors at the Af­rican Art Centre do not interpret but leave the viewer to make his/her own interpretation...often what is omitted is as important as what is in­cluded. The idea of grouping the works under 'Social Comments and Reflections' was a good one and is as telling a picture of society as Hogarth and his modern day interpreters are to theirs."

An exhibition called TheZulu Vision in Art, curated by Jill Addleson and held at the 1988 Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, comprised art from the permanent collection of the Durban Art Gallery and from the Durban African Art Centre.

The African Art Centre's contribution consisted of wood carvings, mostly by unknown artists, and artefacts, telephone wire, tin can and bead-cloth representational sculpture. Indirectly, the Art Centre contributed a considerable proportion of the exhibition as the Durban Art Gallery had over many years acquired work from us. In fact, it was one of the first public galleries to include local contemporary indigenous art and craft in its collection.

In September 1987 a Rorke's Drift Retrospective exhibition of weavings and ceramics was arranged by the Depart­ment of African Studies of the University of Natal in conjunction with the African Art Centre, to celebrate the hanging of the Rorke's Drift tapestry The History of Durban in the University's EG Malherbe Library.

In order to give an overview of early and more recent work, 15 tapestries were borrowed dating from 1967 to 1987 - although one belonging to Shirley and Ted Toll­man might have been earlier. They were joined by early Rorke's Drift pottery from Mark Bernstein's collection, some of which he donated to the Library