SA Nobel Peace Prize winners to be commemorated in public sculpture
by Kim Gurney
Claudette Schreuders and Noria Mabasa are currently completing a new public sculpture project that commemorates the country 's four Nobel Peace Prize winners. The completed works will be installed in Cape Town 's V&A Waterfront in December this year in a designated area to be named Nobel Square.
Schreuders ' contribution comprises four bronze portraits of the country 's Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: the late Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. Mabasa is creating a fifth sculpture called Peace and Democracy, which is a narrative work acknowledging the contribution of women and children to the attainment of peace in South Africa. The five pieces will stand together in a crescent formation in the square between the V&A Hotel and CD Wherehouse where it will be illuminated by night.
Schreuders and Mabasa won the commission from a group of 10 artists who in March 2004 submitted wooden maquettes. Schreuders is modelling her pieces in cretestone from whence they will be cast in bronze and patinated. Each figure will be slightly larger than life. She said the project presented a refreshing break from her usual medium, scale and mode of working.
Schreuders is well known for her distinctive figurative sculptures carved from jacaranda wood and created on a much more intimate scale, some examples of which are currently on show at Michael Stevenson Contemporary in Cape Town. Mabasa is highly regarded for her wooden sculptures as well as her figurative ceramics exploring Venda myths and legends.
The project is a partnership between the Western Cape government and the V&A Waterfront. Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said in a statement that paying tribute to 'these four sons of Africa ' was important for the province. He added: 'Each Laureate played his own meaningful and different role in achieving peace and democracy ... They came from different political backgrounds ... but left an indelible mark on the South African landscape. This tribute must be a symbol that will hold the same significance to future generations. '
