Fran Fearnley Builds a garden out of Shona Stone

FransmallBy Celia Hunter

For Fran Fearnley, finding a new career in African sculpture was not so unlikely a move. As one of five children born to a British diplomat, Fran was born in Teheran, Iran, and at age 7 was visiting art galleries and museums in Nigeria, where her father was then posted. That experience awakened in her an appreciation for indigenous African art and for the continent itself.
Fran, who came to Canada in her 20s, became a freelance writer and editor and for a time was the editor-in-chief of Canada’s parenting magazine, Today’s Parent and its affiliated publications. A Millbrook resident before she moved to her current property overlooking Rice Lake, she also served as the area Public School Board trustee for two terms. In the mid 1990s, for her, the time had come when she wanted to realize her dream of spending a year or two volunteering in South Africa. That country’s transition from the apartheid era to modern democracy intrigued and attracted her and she was eager to experience the mood of the country first hand.
It was when she was working in a volunteer capacity in 1998 for the non-academic publishing arm of the University of Kwazulu Natal that she was asked to attend a book fair in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The week-long event, the largest book fair in the region, was held in the Sculpture Gardens in Harare. Fran stayed in Zimbabwe for 10 days following the event to learn more about the unique Shona stone sculptures and she was hooked. She returned to South Africa with five pieces.
The history and evolution of sculpture in Zimbabwe is built into the landscape. The name of the country itself is derived from the Shona word “house of stone”. Shona is the name of Zimbabwe’s largest tribe. The distinctive rock composition so suited to hand-carving is a major feature of this land-locked country.
Fran describes the discovery by the western world of Zimbabwean stone sculpture as somewhat parallel to the experience in Canada’s north with Inuit art. Zimbabwe in the middle of the 20th century was a British colony and a Scottish curator was commissioned to open a National Gallery. He saw the beauty in functional objects and valued weaving and carving. Seeing the native rock formations, he opened a studio and gave the wood-carvers stone. The carvers went back to their communities, taking their tools and skills with them. The curator, recognizing that the sculpture required a market, took pieces to Europe for exhibit in outside spaces that could accommodate the sometimes massive work, and discovered a huge appetite for the art.
Fran calls it “an intuitive gift”, demanding of the sculptor practicality, good visual recall and the ability to work skillfully with their hands. To be a sculptor in Zimbabwe today, she says, is a well respected occupation but the creative process is long and laborious, beginning with the choosing of the raw rock, recognizing its potential. According to Fran, the creative process involves dignity and spirituality, which are reflected in the finished pieces. The work is also about celebrating life and uplifting the spirit.
After spending a second year in South Africa working with a commission charged with reducing political violence in the run-up to elections, Fran returned to Canada in January 2000, but settling back into publishing was not fitting as well as it did before. So when, six months later, the opportunity arose to bring an abandoned exhibition of Shona stone sculpture from Washington D.C to Canada, Fran took it. The Rice Lake Gallery was born.
Fran went back to Zimbabwe, the first in a series of annual trips that she takes to visit studios, discover and get to know new artists, purchase sculpture and select an artist for a 3-month residency in Canada. She has known this year’s artist, Simon Chidharara, since 2001, and says “he has been inspiring to watch and a joy to encourage”. Simon’s work frequently celebrates women or feminine spirits: he describes women as “the centre of life”.
Fran’s work in Zimbabwe in the past five years has expanded beyond art to additional projects that have included installing irrigation systems, building chicken houses, paying school fees and funding uniforms which are required for children to attend school. Currently Fran is raising funds to continue with the building of a primary school.
Fran Fearnley and Simon Chidharara invite you to meet them and find out more about Zimbabwean stone sculpture September 7-22, noon-7pm daily at the Rice Lake Gallery, www.zimart.ca

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