24 november 2006, by Munyaradzi Makoni in Harare. There is a mystic element attached to it. She reads stone sculpture, gives it life and sermonize it worldwide. Her passion for sculpture runs into bottomless pits, something surprising for someone whose upbringing at her father"s farm in Victoria, had little to do with what you find her doing today. It"s even hard to imagine how someone who loved to swimming half a mile and tendering horses would deeply fall in love with a priceless object of God"s creation, stone art.
Celia Winter Irving is a curator at Zimbabwe National Arts Gallery. She is an internationally acclaimed author of stone sculpture and Zimbabwean art and culture. She has published eleven books on development of the stone sculpture of Zimbabwe. She has written numerous articles on the subject and has also gone an extra mile as a teacher of painting.

How did it all happen?

Celia has travelled a journey richly marinated with arts and cultures the whole of her life. Having run Irving Sculpture Gallery, as its director for six years with success in Sydney, when art in Australia art was something only taught at the art school, she knew about sculpture long before coming to Zimbabwe. Being a teacher at Sydney University, at the Power Institute of Fine Arts her romance with sculpture blossomed. She engineered seminars for scholars and art critics from the world over. While working at the university workshop as sculptor using metal she scooped the Wyong Sculpture Prize.
"Sculpture was part of my life and I wrote about many sculptors and sculpture for leading art journals in Sydney. It was not hard to settle into it at all even though in Zimbabwe it was stone and informal art education rather than welded metal, post-modern stuff and formal art education," she says.

Stone sculpture

Celia first came to Zimbabwe in 1985 as a result of two exhibitions of the stone sculpture of Zimbabwe co-hosted by her Irving Sculpture Gallery and Chapungu Sculpture Gallery to write an article for the British art journal, 'Studio International", on Zimbabwe"s stone sculpture. It"s almost natural to say she easily fitted in the Zimbabwean sculpture system. Rather, it was the same old song probably with a new tune, writing about sculpture and curating shows. With a touch of bush life from her home country she quickly found a new home in the middle of nowhere near the Great Dyke at Tengenenge Sculpture Community in Guruve district. There she found artists who are still close to their traditional practices and beliefs. These are not only from Zimbabwe but the Chewa from Malawi and Zambia, Yao from Malawi. 

Huge success

When she accepted a position at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 1987 as Research Fellow to the late Professor Cyril Rogers, director of the Gallery it also meant the birth the idea of her first book Stone Sculpture of Zimbabwe: Context, Content and Form, which was later, published locally and internationally with huge success. With time the book has since become a standard text of reference on stone sculpture. "Tengenenge remains my home here and my understanding of Africa stems directly from my living at Tengenenge with African people from different cultures and religious persuasions and from my close relationship with Ton Blomefield over many years," says Celia.
Blomefield is the founding director of Tengenenge Sculpture Community. They met when Blomefield came to Australia to open the second exhibition at Irving Gallery.

A portrait of an author

"I have written eleven books on the stone sculpture which have been published and succeeded well overseas sold in major galleries of stone sculpture, two on Tengenenenge (Dutch edition Roettie de Kan van Tengenenge Kit Publishers Royal Tropical Museum Amsterdam – reader in Dutch Schools teaching Dutch school children about African religion and Culture) and six on individual sculptors," says Celia proudly.
Her tenth book 'Pieces of Time" published by Mambo Press is an anthology of articles she wrote for The Herald and Zimbabwe Mirror has been published in a more elaborate version at the request of the distributor African Books Collective in United Kingdom because of high demand in the international market.
"Sootie the cat at Tengenenge remains my favourite book. I hope I have kept up in my books with changes, which have affected the sculpture over the years in Zimbabwe and indeed the global world. I feel now my books afford people a panoramic view of the development of stone sculpture in the last 15 years," she says.

Footsteps of Wisdom

Her latest book, based on a Zimbabwean sculptor, Footsteps of Wisdom printed both in Germany and English is already out, thanks to a private commission from the Netherlands.
Born in Melbourne, Celia grew up on her father"s property Gundamian in Victoria with her mother. Her father bred racehorses and made a study of wild duck as an ornithologist working with Peter Scott, director of the Seven Wildfowl in UK. But, she feels knowing age is not important. "Age is not discussed I am now enjoying what I hope is maturity after a very eventful, crowded life."

Best sellers

Celia"s father wrote three best sellers when he was 70 years old. One of the books 'Beyond the Bitchuman" was a story of his life on the family properties in the North of Queensland and Victoria, no television, email, cell phone, computer or car, just horse and stokeman and space and cattle. These somehow shaped Celia"s mentality. She claims as the only child she took after her father since she started writing with ease at a very young age.
"I wrote for art journals, Australian newspapers on social issues, writing never worried me. One must groom one"s imagination as one brushes one"s hair each day to make it shine. When I was a young girl we did not think of life in terms of career that came to me much later in Zimbabwe. The social expectation was marriage but I had various jobs involving writing and I guess unconsciously the ability to write determined my career choices and professionally I chose to take up."
Despite being full of vigour and zeal, she dismisses any talk about what inspires her writing. She says each book is something of its own. "Writing is a bit craft, a lot of practice and a lot an inborn ability to write. If I had not written my first book and it has not been such a huge success I might not have embarked on the subsequent books. I love sculpture and what goes on inside the stones and the beauty of much of the work."
Yet, she thinks the sculptors and their work might be an inspiration but she does not conclusively say so.

Achievements

With eleven books under her belt she firmly believes she has made stone sculpture more meaningful to a lot of people outside Zimbabwe and helped sell a lot of sculpture. She has lectured on the stone sculpture in Bologna, Sydney, Oslo and in Zimbabwe. Celia has represented Tengenenge at exhibitions in Bologna and Gabrovo, Bulgaria and Madeira, Portugal. With an icing of writing a lot of catalogue essays for huge exhibitions of the stone sculpture world wide and supervising many theses of students working on the stone sculpture at local and international universities, this is no mean achievement.
As a professional painter who specialises in abstract art she has had one solo show at Sandros Gallery in Harare.
"I feel my books are very useful and meaningful in their engagement with school and tertiary course in art in Zimbabwe to teach students about stone sculpture that the sculptures are not just beautiful objects but teaching aids to Zimbabwean culture and spiritual history."

Unique

Zimbabwean stone sculpture commands a lot of respect world over simply because its not only rooted in the spiritual traditions of Zimbabwe but it changes its context according to what happens and takes place in the country and the rest of the world.
"It"s not stuck in a period of history or spiritual history it is accessible to people the world over because of the nature of the messages. It"s not part of built environments like other traditions of sculpture it stands on its own and it has provided a means for living and an interesting way of life for otherwise ordinary Zimbabweans," says Celia.

Personal glimpses

Millions of kilometres away from close relatives dear to her heart Celia says, writing introduces her to new people and make new friends and do new things like spoken poetry, which she occasionally performs with other poets in Harare with poetry centred on her book Soottie the Cat at Tengenenge.
"I love cats and dogs, my family always put their animals before them. I have had two cats Joseph and Soottie. I collect Illustrated cat books I keep in my office which are a joy to my visitors at the gallery" And for a cat lover, who can deny her the opportunity to indulge?

Opera

In the past she has taught courses in opera, Mozart Verdi Puccini Donizetti Bellini Rossini in the department of Adult education in Sydney opera relating to European history.
While passionate about sculpture in European Cathedrals from Renaissance to Baroque and Bernini in particular she fears birds and heights. She is also a fashion enthusiast who loves to keep thin and looking elegant as humanly as possible. Her heart opens up greatly when she works with students on stone sculpture. But one has to hear her talking with respect on her association with National Arts Council in developing annual National Merit Awards for artists in the country. She has been among jurists on these awards on three occasions.
"I value spending time with my adopted cat Whiskers and as much time as I can with Blomefield, when he is free, expanding my interests. I just love Tengenenge."
Baptised and confirmed into the Anglican Church she is now not an Anglican of any definite formal nature but oozing with confidence she says: "I am very interested in religion and art to do with religion and the role of religion in people"s lives. I would be an excellent Christian if I took the jump to believe in God and make Christ centre of my life."