Noria Muelwa Mabasa

Noria Mabasa, nicknamed the Sculptor of Dreams, next to her work, Flow Communications. 

“Now that I’m older and less strong than I was, I probably should rest. But that’s not who I am – I will keep sharing my knowledge and talents for as long as there’s still life in my body.”— Noria Mabasa

Self- taught Noria Muelwa Mabasa (b. 1938) relies on innermost faith and dreams to create in a still predominantly male practice. Her large scale wood sculptures bring the past into the present with techniques passed down from previous generations unto her.

Mabasa was born in Xigalo (now Shigalo) Limpopo in South Africa, faced crucial economic strife, and began making art around the 1970’s.

Mother and Child, unglazed clay and paint, 60” x 30” x 30,” Aspire Art Auctions. 

The earth provides Mabasa’s primary material resources— dead wood and clay. These bridge together Venda mythology inherent in her region, the wisdom tapped into respecting and appreciating nature. She uses art to raise awareness, hoping the government pays close attention to her ancestral stories rendered in intricate detail and specific color palettes. Her figures, which range from modest to life-sized scale, are often anatomically disproportioned, large heads atop small bodies, carrying the weighted burden of thoughts, of memories.

Mother and Child is a familiar Western image that almost takes on a religious undertone. Yet Mabasa simply illustrates the gender roles around her community, carving out a tender parent holding her fully wrapped baby at her breast and affectionately cooing at the profiled head. The colors are very life like, attentive in the skin tones of the figures, the textures in the jewelry, the patterned dress. Mabasa has been witness to this forever, able to capture the special kind of love a mother reserves for her child. Whereas Black Policeman shows an astute male, professionally dressed, militant. Mabasa has a series of many policemen figures— one of the key threats existing in South Africa, even worldwide. The corrupted ones are not sworn to protect, only to thwart their authoritarian power over civilians meaning to do more harm than good.

Black Policeman, bisque-fired clay, 54 cm, Revisions.  

Mabasa at work outdoors, 2009, South African History Online (SAHO). 

Sue Blaine and Christine Kennedy wrote in Flow SA, “As a female woodcarver in a traditionally male-dominated art form, she fearlessly confronts social issues through her monumental sculptures, which marry Venda mythology and customs with current affairs. Mabasa continues to be instrumental in preserving and passing on indigenous wisdom through her work.”

Noria Mabasa, Department of Arts and Culture Archives, Flow SA. 

Noria Mabasa has exhibited in South Africa, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, even participating in  the Venice Biennale titled Incroci del Sud (Southern Crosses). She is in several collections such as in South Africa, the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, UK, and Guildford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. In 2003, the second year of its fruition, she was awarded the Order of Baobabin Silver, an honor given by the President of South Africa to individuals making important contributions in business and economy, science, medicine, and technology.

She currently lives and works in Vuwani near Thohoyandou.