Basa Awards

Award winners receive sculptor’s colourful tokens of transformation

THE 18th annual Basa Awards, jointly sponsored by Business Day, Business and Arts SA and partnered by Hollard, recognise and encourage excellence and innovation in the field of business support for the arts.

TRANSFORMATION is alive and well in Shangaan culture, says sculptor Collen Maswanganyi, who created the colourful and expressive awards presented to winners of the 18th Annual Business Day Business and Arts SA (Basa) Awards, partnered by Hollard, at a ceremony in Johannesburg last night.

This is not only expressed by members of his generation who are set on encouraging both older and younger generations to embrace their culture and traditions, and be “proudly Shangaan”, but also by the ever-evolving nature of their artwork.

“For example, the 24 different sculptures I created for the Basa Awards talk about how the modern world is transforming traditional families and individuals in SA, and the advantages and disadvantages of this. It is not only digital devices that change the way families communicate and progress, but other modern day influences and pressures, such as black economic empowerment and the challenge of balancing work and family life,” says Maswanganyi, who was born in Noblehoek in Giyani, Limpopo, but now lives and works in Midrand.

The family of sculptures includes symbols of transformation such as a black Springbok rugby player, a woman CEO, a young woman applying make-up for a Facebook picture and a community leader wearing a modern branded shirt using traditional methods to communicate. They tell stories about how complicated transformation is as we negotiate much-needed change but also hold onto tradition.

Maswanganyi’s roots are firmly Shangaan and deeply artistic. Not only is his mother a deft hand at beading and pottery, but he is also the son of fellow sculptor Johannes Maswanganyi, whose artwork has been exhibited in SA, Germany, the UK and the US since 1985 and is included in most major collections of South African art. But, while Johannes was taught to carve by his father Piet, and had no formal training, Collen went on to study fine art at Witwatersrand Technikon after having learned at his father’s side.

“I consider my father to be the best teacher. He taught me from a very early age and, even before I began studying, I participated in exhibitions.”

After graduating in 1999, Maswanganyi began working as an artist full time, using primarily corkwood and acrylic paint. Two years later, he was included in the top 10 in the Absa L’Atelier Art Awards for 2001. By 2010, Maswanganyi’s signature style had evolved into one of humour, irony and colourful social critique, and he was named a Top Finalist and Merit Award Winner in the Absa L’Atelier awards. “My work has changed a lot in the past decade, not only in terms of how I think about it but also how I hope others will interact with it,” says Maswanganyi. “But many things stay the same. Although I have indoor space to work in at my home and studio in Midrand and some modern tools, I still like to work out in the sun or, if it is too hot, in the shade of the trees with the old tools my father taught me to make. You see, while transformation is alive and well, some things remain happily the same.”