'Me and My Family' is an original opal serpentine sculpture signed by the Zimbabwean artist Picket Mazhindu Bumhira. Family groupings like this are a beloved theme seen in the works of the Shona sculptors of Zimbabwe, which make a contemporary image while looking back to traditional compositional ideas from across the African continent. For example, sculptures like this look northward to the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria: the palace of the King of Ikere would often be decorated with sculptures featuring the queen, king, and their children in a hierarchy of scale to demonstrate their relationships to each other and to their subjects (compare with Art Institute of Chicago 1984.550). The figures in Picket's sculpture are likewise ambiguous and stylized, and are arranged using a similar hierarchy of scale with the matriarch towering over her children below. At the same time, the curving bodies and downcast eyes of the figures emphasizes familial trust and adoration. Thusly, sculptures like this present a vision of family structure and unity for people who, like many, find family indispensable.

opal stone (serpentine)
49 x 14 x 8.5 inches
175 lbs