Posted on August 22, 2016
Zelda Stroud, a master's student in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria, has produced four life-size bronze sculptures of iconic South African women for the Women's Living Heritage Monument in Pretoria. These four women – Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi and Sophie Williams – were the leaders of the Women's March to the Union Buildings in 1955, and again in 1956, to present petitions in protest of the implementation of pass laws for black women.
The four sculptures were unveiled at Lilian Ngoyi Square in Pretoria (adjacent to the State Theatre) as part of the Women's Day celebrations on 9 August 2016. The Women's Museum, of which the sculptures form a part, will only be complete in January 2017 and the sculptures have been placed in storage until construction is complete. The only surviving leader of the original protests, Sophie Williams de Bruyn, was present at the unveiling of her sculpture, as were many of the other Women's March veterans.
Zelda Stroud with the WLHM sculptures (photo by Sarah Haines)
Stroud studied sculpture under Peter Schutz at Wits University in the 1980s. She lives and works on a smallholding in the east of Pretoria and teaches part-time in the Department of Jewellery Design and Manufacture at Tshwane University of Technology. She has also produced seven life-size bronzes as part of the National Heritage Project in Pretoria. She was the recipient of a two-month stay at the SANAVA apartment at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris at the end of 2014. Her master's exhibition for the University of Pretoria, which includes more personal artwork, will be held at Van Wouw House at the end of this year.
Click on the link below for the SABC's coverage of the event.
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