'Scratching Bird' is an original opal serpentine stone sculpture signed by the contemporary Zimbabwean artist Chenjerai Chiripanyanga. The artist presents in this sculpture a highly abstracted figure of a bird, the long beak and eye of which emerges shining and polished from within the rough-hewn surface of the stone. Though Chiripanyanga is trained in the Shona stone carving tradition, the way that the bird seems to be revealed out of the stone reminds of the "unfinished" sculptures of Michelangelo, who revealed the figures within the stone rather than insisting on "finishing" them. Here too Chiripanyanga "reveals" the bird, taking joy in the play between the sculptor's finish and the work of nature.

opal (serpentine)
31.5 x 11 x 5 inches
Signed along base
Overall good condition with no signs of wear, chips or cracks.