Cape Town - Walter and Albertina Sisulu have come to visit Parliament in statue form, holding hands and waving as they were so often pictured. They arrived on Wednesday in time for Thursday night’s State of the Nation Address.
The two figures connected by clasped hands are set to be part of a procession of 500 sculptures of important people in South Africa’s history, forming the Long March to Freedom central installation at the National Heritage Monument in Tshwane.
But only 60 or so of these have been completed so far, so for a few weeks, the Sisulus will be installed at Parliament.
The couple were political activists and Struggle stalwarts, originally from the Eastern Cape. Walter Sisulu died in 2003, and his wife in 2011.
Sculptor Tania Lee was drawn to the couple’s love for one another.
“This sculpture is a very emotional one for me, because it has a deeper message of unity; it’s the greatest love story,” she said.
“They were such a strong couple whose relationship survived huge adversity.”
Lee grew up in the Karoo, where her father is a farmer.
“That’s where my love of creating and getting my hands dirty came from. I didn’t have any formal artistic training, but I’ve been able to assist some leading sculptors in South Africa, so I gained a lot of experience through that.”
The two figures took Lee three months to sculpt, then another two months to cast into bronze.
She trawled through any photographs and writing she could find about the couple.
“In almost every photo I saw of them, there was this close contact, they were holding hands.”
The statues are not monochromatic like many bronzes. Instead, the bronze foundry used a patina to give the Sisulus colourful clothing and skin tone.
“They use fire and chemicals to create the colours,” Lee explained.
“It’s not a paint on the surface - it reacts with the bronze to give these colours. The bronze itself is a very shiny, yellowish metal. Then they cover the whole piece with wax.”
The sculpture of the Sisulus will make its public debut on Thursday night as part of the State of the Nation Address activities.
Aspiring sculptor Lungisa Kala also worked on the piece, helping Lee with some stages of the process. Kala had previously worked in a bronze foundry, and was paired with Lee as part of an arts mentorship programme.
“The first time (a sculpture) is seen you feel like you’re baring yourself; it’s always a nerve-wracking time for an artist,” Lee said.
“This is also quite a personal thing for a lot of people, because they’re figures who are still quite recent in history, so there are people who look up to them as mothers and fathers of freedom and the Struggle.”
Cape Argus