Omobowale Ayorinde: Creative Hue

Omobowale Ayorinde, noted photographer and professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, earlier works centered mostly around cultural anthropology as related to the African diaspora, with studies on traditional forms of worship, Osogbo, Nigeria; Oyotunji Village, SC; and Rastafarian culture, Jamaica. This latent yet, most often barely visible signature drives his newly and explosive abstract formulations of varying forms. His new works often challenge a limited definition of, "Black Art" and the black artist. For those who have not kept there ear to the ground, reading accompanying statements or travel notes really aid in opening the viewer into seeing with a global eye rather than relying on an observation of beauty. Ayorinde states, "Yes I think it is important for black artist to discuss their work, less it acquire a kind of anonymity as African art, where we observe it's beauty and know little of the persons who created the work nor their intentions."

“House of Stone [Shona] Tribute”

Initially, I had entitled this image, “Zimbabwe Rocks,” which I felt had a nice entendre. However, “Zimbabwe” in the Shona language actually means, “the House of Stone,” which as a title, won out. Although the Shona are the uncontested premier rock sculptors of Africa, they do not have a monopoly even among the Zimbabweans, whereas they represent about 70%.

Africa has many intriguing sculptors/carvers and a case could definitely be made for the intricate Makonde or the powerful Bobo but there is something intrinsically modern, abstract, elegant yet inherently African in the rock sculptures by the Shona people of Zimbabwe.

It’s said, there is documented proof that Picasso not only knew of the Shona sculptures but was also heavily influenced by it. Why this would be contested, is beyond me, to see these endless works is to be imprinted. These sculptures are among the very expensive [$75K is not uncommon nor a ceiling], highly collected, sought after and exhibited in museums worldwide. The superior and prolific quality of expression skillfully executed on such materials such as serpentine, springstone, lepidolite and verdite to name a few popular ones, challenges the imagination. Somewhat reminiscent, is the mystical and equally prolific Inuit carvings usually of soapstone and sometimes bone. In general, the Zimbabwe sculptures are normally executed on a larger scale than the average soapstone of the Inuit.

I spent several hours just photographing these incredible larger than life sculptures. In my head I could hear Bob Marley’s song calling for the liberation of Zimbabwe, and I wondered with all the political upheavals in Harare, it’s capital city, where most of this work emanates, the sculptors seem undaunted, churning out one of a kind master pieces. I became seduced by the lyrical forms, sort of folkloric in a Africana way, sensual and always distinctly authored. Unlike many other African sculptors the work of the Shona tends not to represent deities nor even center on ancestor worship but rather bends perceptions of now into possibilities that take on realistic stylize forms. I have rearranged the musical score, made rough the smooth, abstracted from the abstract, bent the hues and juxtaposed context, in giving tribute to the, “House of Stone.”

Omobowale Ayorinde