The iconic Elephant Ivory Sculpture
Thalefang Charles | Friday July 31, 2015 18:00
Standing in the middle of a large circular weaved basket with traditionally-inspired decoration on the ground floor of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport is the world’s first elephant sculpture made out of pure ivory.
On closer inspection this iconic sculpture positioned between Departures and Arrivals gates facing the main entrance is actually in a movement; a female elephant walking on painful looking brown boulders of hard rocks punctuated with dry grass.
No elephant will be happy to be here and that is what this monument represents.
“This work of art intends to raise our collective consciousness about the plight the African elephant faces today,” President Ian Khama declared during the unveiling two weeks ago.
Although the sculpture has made local and international headlines, some celebrating it, while others chastising it, saying it is sending a mixed message, little has been said about the sculptors of this magnificent art piece.
“At the unveiling [ceremony] we felt like parents whom their celebrated newborn was being paraded to the public by the grandparents, while we occupied the backseat,” analogises Joseph Piet who was the project lead artist.
But whose baby is it anyway?
An ivory sculpture idea is said to have come from the top level in the Government Enclave.
“Apparently it is the brainchild of Office of the President,” said Reginald Bakwena, coordinator of Thapong Visual Arts Centre, falling short of saying that it was the President’s idea.
Bakwena said Thapong Visual Arts Centre was only commissioned to find the right artists who could turn the elders’ idea into a monumental piece of art.
Isaac Chibua, Wailer Motsu, Kelebogile Marope, Gosego Motlogelwa, Kealeboga Ramogotsi, Galositse Metlhaleng and Joseph Piet made the cut to be the pioneering collaboration of local artists to design the elephant sculpture.
Two of them, Marope and Metlhaleng have never seen a live elephant before. Their knowledge of elephants is through pictures and television.
But Marope designed the grid that ended up being adopted for the sculpture.
Marope is the only female artist in the group and she said the elephant has always been her favourite animal.
“My first stuffed animal toy was an elephant,” she said. Marope said she feels privileged to be part of the group that produced “one of the most valuable still elephants in the world”.
Multi-award winning and veteran artist, Chibua, brought some rich wealth of elephant sculpturing experience to the group.
“I come from ‘Ko Tloung’ in Tlokweng,” he declared.
‘Ko Tloung’ (at the elephant) is a landmark bus stop in Tlokweng named after Chibua’s ‘The Elephant’ sculpture. His is a sculpture that he said is ‘work in progress’ made from metal sheets.
Chibua’s experience and advice proved invaluable in the sculpting, especially looking at the time constraints that they were working under.
Before they could begin working on the sculpture, the artists requested to be given a chance to travel and familiarise themselves with elephants, but the commissioners told them they did not have the luxury of time.
So they had to work with their general knowledge of the elephants.
That is where artists like Motsu who said he ‘grew up with elephants’ experience contributed immensely into the project.
Armed with their general knowledge of these giants and images from books and elsewhere, together with their rich individual sculpting experience, the biggest challenge came from working with ivory.
“It was a first for us to work with ivory. Although it was exciting it had its own challenges,” said Motsu.
Before they even touched the ivory they had to design the metal frame that holds the ivory at Thapong. It started with pencil drafts on paper that evolved into a 3D metal frame.
The artists were then moved to a ‘secret location’ where they started working with a stockpile of ivory. They still remember the first smell of ivory and how they later got used to it.
“For six weeks we were living with and breathing ivory,” shared Marope.
But the ‘secret location’ was limiting, according to Piet who was the team leader.
“It is a big sculpture and we needed large space that allows good vantage point for observation while working with it. But we did not have that,” said the dreadlocked artist.
Working with unusual objects meant they had to bend and learn to work in the small space. The artists did not have much freedom as they are used to.
Government gave them strict guidelines and deadlines that were supposed to be met.
The artwork was supposed to be delivered before March so that the unveiling coincided with the African Elephant Summit that was hosted in Kasane.
“An artwork never finishes. Even this one, we could still work on it and improve it. But we were able to handover this in six weeks from the day of conception,” said Motsu.
Although while working with the sculpture they did not really express their individual artistic expressions. The artists, however, managed to get lost in the ethereal world of creative process and managed to connect as artists and produce an artwork they felt content and satisfied with.
“We learnt a lot from each other. We held back our egos and focused on the project,” explained Chibua.
“We were able to share skills because we came in as different artists with different abilities and styles,” said Marope.
Looking ahead Piet sees it as the beginning of a possible explosion of public art in Botswana.
He said, “It is more than just an elephant sculpture because it gives us a chance to show Batswana that we could use any object in any art expression.”
In the end, Marope and Metlhaleng still wish to go on safari and see a live elephant.
After taking a picture with his family in front of the latest masterpiece bearing his name, Chibua bid his farewell and returned to ‘Ko Tloung’ in Tlokweng.
They leave their Elephant Ivory Sculpture in the middle of the weaved basket at the airport because as Khama said, “The placement of the sculpture here at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport is highly symbolic as it represents the international dimension or magnitude of the illegal ivory trade.”