Mozambique Flood

Mabasa came to prominence working in a traditional style with fired and painted clay, which proved popular with collectors in the 1980s and early 1990s. Her works were generally free-standing figures with oversized heads and little movement in the bodies due to the style of moulding the clay. But her work changed radically when she began to focus on WOODCARVING.

The region where she lives has always offered the artist plenty of raw material, and wood is more resilient than clay as a medium. As she became proficient, she produced more complex, multifigured compositions such as Flood Mozambique. The flood theme is significant since the artist cites a dream of a piece of wood washing up in floods in her region as being the catalyst for her turn to woodcarving. 

Artwork courtesy of Javett Family Collection.