Notes

Owen Ndou was born in Gwamasenga, Venda. He began carving at a young age and became a full-time sculptor after he completed school in the mid-1980s. Ndou often collaborates with his older brother Goldwin in making sculpture and together they have produced an extensive body of work. Owen Ndou also creates sculptures independently that reflect observations of everyday life and nostalgic references to a cultural past. Ndou’s primarily figurative works comprise mythical beasts, through combining familiar animals, such as tortoises and hares (both tricksters in Venda folk-tales), with human forms in unexpected juxtapositions imbued with the artist’s distinctive sense of humour, drama and fantasy.

Ndou’s sculptures are held in many museum collections in South Africa including Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery and Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.

Ndou’s figures are often endowed with distinctive physical proportions and facial features. In Soccer player the figure, wearing branded soccer kit, is slightly hunched forward to suggest the action of kicking the ball. The figure’s elongated arms and fingers visually extend the line of energy through the static body, creating the sense of dynamic movement.

Provenance

Donated by Trent Read