SCULPTOR Lwandiso Njara will install the concrete sculpture he has created at President Jacob Zuma's Pretoria residence, Mahlamba Ndlopfu, next week.
Njara created the sculpture as part of his third-year fine and applied arts portfolio at the Tshwane University of Technology. He then entered it in PPC Young Concrete Sculptor Awards where he was runner-up.
The PPC Young Concrete Sculptor Awards has been on the art calendar for the past 18 years and has become one of South Africa's most prestigious art competitions.
The competition invites young artists to submit sculptures using concrete as the primary medium and is open to people with or without formal training in sculpting.
Njara said: "I'm excited about installing my work in the president's house. I feel very important."
The sculpture that won him R25000 is of nine metro bus drivers during their strike.
"I was inspired by how the industrial strike meant that lecturers and students could not go to school. It also comments on the scarcity of jobs in the country."
Njara, who is from Libode village near Umtata in Eastern Cape, said he started drawing at a tender age and that after finishing school, he decided to follow his passion of becoming an artist.
"I do not only work with concrete. I try and explore other mediums,"he said.
Artist's sculpture goes presidential
SCULPTOR Lwandiso Njara will install the concrete sculpture he has created at President Jacob Zuma's Pretoria residence, Mahlamba Ndlopfu, next week.
Njara created the sculpture as part of his third-year fine and applied arts portfolio at the Tshwane University of Technology. He then entered it in PPC Young Concrete Sculptor Awards where he was runner-up.
The PPC Young Concrete Sculptor Awards has been on the art calendar for the past 18 years and has become one of South Africa's most prestigious art competitions.
The competition invites young artists to submit sculptures using concrete as the primary medium and is open to people with or without formal training in sculpting.
Njara said: "I'm excited about installing my work in the president's house. I feel very important."
The sculpture that won him R25000 is of nine metro bus drivers during their strike.
"I was inspired by how the industrial strike meant that lecturers and students could not go to school. It also comments on the scarcity of jobs in the country."
Njara, who is from Libode village near Umtata in Eastern Cape, said he started drawing at a tender age and that after finishing school, he decided to follow his passion of becoming an artist.
"I do not only work with concrete. I try and explore other mediums,"he said.